Desperate times at Ola Financial

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Editor's note: At some point, Ola co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal dreamt of building a conglomerate of businesses combining tech and mobility. Starting as a ride-hailing business, the company over the years expanded to food and grocery delivery, financial services and used-car sales. But like many of its verticals, Ola’s financial services arm is also struggling to survive.  Ola made a foray into financial services in 2015, when it acquired digital wallet company ZipCash Card Services. After rebranding the company as Ola Financial Services, it launched four products over the next few years. These included a digital wallet called OlaMoney, a short-term credit line to customers called OlaMoney Postpaid, a ride insurance option and a co-branded credit card in partnership with SBI Cards. As the cab aggregator business grew in the following years, so did the number of customers using fintech products. But the company has run into trouble over the past two years. First, its revenue nosedived in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, Ola’s lack of efforts to grow the digital wallet and postpaid business after the first year …