Bengaluru-based Ohm Mobility, a FinTech and Clean Transportation startup founded in February 2020, has acquired a Nagpur-based company, Cloud NBFC that develops loan management systems for financiers. Ohm believes that vehicle lending in emerging markets is going to get dramatically more efficient and digital, especially with the onset of connected vehicles and EVs. Ohm is building a tech platform that will enable this shift. The companies first product combines digital payments, IoT data (from the vehicle) and data science to help financiers/NBFCs reduce cost and modernise lending.
“While the government aims for EV adoption on a big scale, financing of EV remain one of the biggest challenges. Ohm’s tech platform is trying to make financing of EVs easier for lenders,” Nikhil Nair, CEO and Founder, Ohm Mobility. Nair is an Oxford University graduate and has deep experience in building and growing FinTech and energy businesses in the Middle East, Africa and India. He prevously worked with the founding team of M-PESA in Kenya.
According to Reserve Bank of India data, during 2019 vehicle lending was about ₹4.7-lakh crore. These loans were mostly disbursed for the conventional internal combustion engine vehicles while EV makes up under 1% of the motor vehicles on India’s roads. Some 40 lakh automobiles are sold every year in the country and of this, only about one-fourth of them are purchased outright – the other 75% are financed.
Speaking of the acquisition, Nair added, “At Ohm, we believe the future of transportation will be clean, connected and shared. We are building a tech platform and consumer app to enable this future. In Feb 2021, we acquired a FinTech focused software company building LMS. Together, we have put ourselves in a strong position to become a leader in this new and upcoming segament.”
Rahul Dupare and Omik Dahat, Co-founders of Cloud NBFC, said, “We are excited to join Ohm’s journey and further develop our product to finance connected and clean transportation.”
After working for 12 years in clean energy, Nair started Ohm Mobility with the mission to build technology that will enable the transition to clean mobility. Ohm is part of the ‘Microsoft for Startups’ accelerator program and is backed by world-class advisors and angel investors.
