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What is the story about?
Digital lending platform Olyv will deploy the $23 million it has raised in its Series B round to expand into insurance, UPI payments and business loans, while also investing in brand building and technology infrastructure, as it looks to build a full-stack financial services platform for emerging India.
The funding round was led by The Fundamentum Partnership, founded by Nandan Nilekani and Sanjeev Agrawal, with participation from SMBC Asia Rising Fund.
Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Rohit Garg, Co-Founder and CEO of Olyv, said the fresh capital comes at an “interesting juncture” for the company, which has reported profitability for 11 consecutive quarters.
“We have a very strong product-market fit and consistent profitability. This funding allows us to invest for the long term — expanding our product suite beyond lending into insurance, UPI payments and business loans,” Garg said. “Our aim is to create the leading full-stack financial platform for emerging India.”
Scaling beyond lending
Olyv, which began operations around seven to eight years ago, has built a base of 50 million users and has disbursed over ₹10,000 crore in loans since inception. Garg said the company has focused sharply on risk management and unit economics, which has helped it grow without compromising profitability.
With the new funding, Olyv is targeting more than $1 billion in assets under management (AUM) and 100 million users over the next few years.
“We have always focused on risk and unit economics as the core pillars of our business. From here, we are looking to scale and cross over $1 billion in AUM and 100 million users,” Garg said.
The capital will be used not just to expand the product stack, but also to deepen customer engagement and strengthen the company’s technology backbone to deliver a more seamless experience.
Betting on ‘emerging India’
Garg said the growth thesis is anchored in financial inclusion beyond the top 10% of affluent and mass affluent consumers.
“Historically, access to financial services has gone largely to the top 10%. The opportunity now is to digitise the next half a billion users — people in tier-two and tier-three cities, small business owners and the emerging salaried class,” he said.
According to Garg, these segments were traditionally underserved because of limited structured data and a perceived lack of creditworthiness. Olyv has sought to address this by using alternative data and machine learning models to underwrite borrowers.
“With smartphones and digital public infrastructure, even consumers in tier-four towns and villages are digitally literate. They shop online and use UPI comfortably. The onus is on us to harness unstructured data and convert it into usable insights,” he said.
He added that the company has seen a consistent decline in non-performing assets (NPAs) and improving operating leverage, despite broader stress in parts of the unsecured lending segment over the past two to three years.
Focus remains on credit
While Olyv plans to enter adjacent segments such as insurance, UPI and business loans, Garg emphasised that credit will remain the core anchor.
“Our core is credit. The idea is to use the data and insights we get from credit and expand into adjacent markets sequentially,” he said. “Currently, we are doing personal loans. We plan to expand into business loans, and because our customers use UPI, we will move into that as well.”
Garg added that the expansion will be phased rather than simultaneous, to avoid diluting focus.
Also Read | Digital loans in India remains a massive opportunity despite tighter regulations, says investor Mayank Kachhwaha
“Focus is paramount as you build a fintech firm. The idea is to go sequentially rather than branching into everything at once. Once you build trust, over time you can augment that base,” he said.
With fresh capital and strategic backing, Olyv is now positioning itself to evolve from a digital lending platform into a broader financial services ecosystem aimed at India’s next wave of consumers.
Watch accompanying video for full show.
The funding round was led by The Fundamentum Partnership, founded by Nandan Nilekani and Sanjeev Agrawal, with participation from SMBC Asia Rising Fund.
Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Rohit Garg, Co-Founder and CEO of Olyv, said the fresh capital comes at an “interesting juncture” for the company, which has reported profitability for 11 consecutive quarters.
“We have a very strong product-market fit and consistent profitability. This funding allows us to invest for the long term — expanding our product suite beyond lending into insurance, UPI payments and business loans,” Garg said. “Our aim is to create the leading full-stack financial platform for emerging India.”
Scaling beyond lending
Olyv, which began operations around seven to eight years ago, has built a base of 50 million users and has disbursed over ₹10,000 crore in loans since inception. Garg said the company has focused sharply on risk management and unit economics, which has helped it grow without compromising profitability.
With the new funding, Olyv is targeting more than $1 billion in assets under management (AUM) and 100 million users over the next few years.
“We have always focused on risk and unit economics as the core pillars of our business. From here, we are looking to scale and cross over $1 billion in AUM and 100 million users,” Garg said.
The capital will be used not just to expand the product stack, but also to deepen customer engagement and strengthen the company’s technology backbone to deliver a more seamless experience.
Betting on ‘emerging India’
Garg said the growth thesis is anchored in financial inclusion beyond the top 10% of affluent and mass affluent consumers.
“Historically, access to financial services has gone largely to the top 10%. The opportunity now is to digitise the next half a billion users — people in tier-two and tier-three cities, small business owners and the emerging salaried class,” he said.
According to Garg, these segments were traditionally underserved because of limited structured data and a perceived lack of creditworthiness. Olyv has sought to address this by using alternative data and machine learning models to underwrite borrowers.
“With smartphones and digital public infrastructure, even consumers in tier-four towns and villages are digitally literate. They shop online and use UPI comfortably. The onus is on us to harness unstructured data and convert it into usable insights,” he said.
He added that the company has seen a consistent decline in non-performing assets (NPAs) and improving operating leverage, despite broader stress in parts of the unsecured lending segment over the past two to three years.
Focus remains on credit
While Olyv plans to enter adjacent segments such as insurance, UPI and business loans, Garg emphasised that credit will remain the core anchor.
“Our core is credit. The idea is to use the data and insights we get from credit and expand into adjacent markets sequentially,” he said. “Currently, we are doing personal loans. We plan to expand into business loans, and because our customers use UPI, we will move into that as well.”
Garg added that the expansion will be phased rather than simultaneous, to avoid diluting focus.
Also Read | Digital loans in India remains a massive opportunity despite tighter regulations, says investor Mayank Kachhwaha
“Focus is paramount as you build a fintech firm. The idea is to go sequentially rather than branching into everything at once. Once you build trust, over time you can augment that base,” he said.
With fresh capital and strategic backing, Olyv is now positioning itself to evolve from a digital lending platform into a broader financial services ecosystem aimed at India’s next wave of consumers.
Watch accompanying video for full show.
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