Ola acquires Avail Fin.🤝🏻, Lenskart raises $100 Mn👓, BookMyShow's rapid growth🍿

Ola board approves acquisition of Avail Finance, Lenskart raises $100 Mn, BookMyShow's biz rapidly approaching pre-pandemic levels, Funding Deals & more.

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Apr 12, 2022

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Ola board approves acquisition of Avail Finance💰

The board of Ola’s parent company ANI Technologies has approved the acquisition of Avail Finance.

Ankush Aggarwal, cofounder of Avail Finance, is the brother of Ola founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal. The deal would be considered a related-party transaction as both brothers are directors of Goddard Technical Solutions, which operates Avail Finance.

Ola To Acquire Fintech Firm Avail Finance

Ankush Aggarwal is expected to lead Ola Financial Services, Ola’s fintech arm, according to a source.

Ola said the acquisition of Avail Finance, which provides loans to blue-collar workers, would help it strengthen its play in the credit-underserved segment, which includes its driver-partners.

Lenskart raises $100 Mn in a new round👓

Multi-channel eyewear brand Lenskart has raised Rs 760 crore or $100 million in a new round from Alpha Wave Incubation (Previously Falcon Edge). The company had previously raised $95 million in a round led by KKR in May last year.

Lenskart has raised the fresh funds at $4.3 billion (post-money) valuation. The Delhi-based company was reportedly in talks to raise around $250 million at a $5 billion valuation. The company may raise more funds in this round.

(From left) Lenskart founders Amit Chaudhary, Peyush Bansal and Sumeet Kapahi — Lenskart founders Amit Chaudhary, Peyush Bansal and Sumeet Kapahi

Apart from online sales, Lenskart claims to have over 1,000 franchise stores and it’s now looking to open 400 outlets across the country by FY23. The company recently announced the expansion of its online presence by offering its products on Nykaa, Myntra, Tata Cliq and other platforms.

Founded in 2010 by Peyush Bansal, Amit Chaudhury, and Sumeet Kapahi, Lenskart claims to reach 1,00,000 customers per month.

Intuitive web platform designed to help people craft empathetic and more effective written content, Instoried has secured $200 million from Global Emerging Markets (GEM) group.
PhableCare, a chronic disease management company, has raised $25 million in a funding round led by Kalaari Capital.
Healthcare provider Medfin has raised $15 million in fresh funding from investors including Arka Nxt, HealthXCapital (Singapore), Blume Ventures, Axilor Ventures, Sony and Kotak Investments.
MyShubhLife, a full-stack financial services platform, has closed funding of Rs 100 crore from Gojo & Company, Inc.
Agritech startup GROWiT has raised Rs 3 crore in its seed round led by Mehul Shah from IVY Growth.

BookMyShow sees business fast approaching pre-Covid levels🍿

Movie ticketing and events platform BookMyShow said the company’s business is rapidly approaching pre-pandemic levels after having weathered slumps due to the Covid-19-led lockdowns.

The company recorded its highest-ever monthly ticketing sales in March 2022 on the back of theatre releases, the Indian Premier League (IPL), and other live events, thus concluding the last fiscal on a positive note.

bms — Ashish Hemrajani, Co-founder and CEO of BookMyShow

BookMyShow also recorded its highest monthly active users at 70 million--more than pre-Covid times--and its highest-ever traffic and consumption demand with 250 million customer visits per month. Pre-Covid monthly traffic was averaging about 200 million customer visits per month.

The company launched BookMyShow streaming service in February of 2021. It also expanded its brand and advertisement monetisation service.

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