Astranova Mobility's lending subsidiary, Novafusion Capital, has received approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a Non-Banking Financial Institution (NBFC). According to reports from The Hindu BusinessLine, this regulatory milestone enables the company to formally enter the financial services sector for electric mobility financing. The licence presents a unique opportunity as India increasingly transitions to electric mobility due to viable total cost of ownership (TCO) benefits alongside policy momentum. As EV adoption moves from policy-led growth to commercially driven, mass-market adoption, financing is emerging as the critical enabler.
The company is targeting ₹5,000 crore in assets under management (AUM) over the next five years, as announced by Kunal Mundra, Founder & CEO of Astranova Mobility, to PTI. As reported by The Hindu BusinessLine, this substantial financing commitment will be primarily for electric vehicles and only for commercial operators, focusing on entities that earn livelihoods through these assets. Mundra shared that with the help of this NBFC, the aspiration is to deploy ₹5,000 crore worth of financing in the next five years. The financing initiative addresses a significant market need, with India estimated to require USD 100 billion for transitioning its commercial vehicles to electric mobility. This opportunity extends beyond financing more vehicles to building comprehensive credit infrastructure for clean mobility adoption across commercial sectors.
An estimated USD 100 billion commercial EV market, alongside a gig workforce expected to grow 3x to 3 crores by 2030, points to a rapidly expanding pool of borrowers with a need for income-generating assets. However, gig workers and 3W/4W drivers remain underserved as traditional lenders often need to assess not only the borrower's credit profile but also the asset, its utilisation and its ability to generate income. Astranova's approach combines asset-level intelligence with credit assessment, using telematics and large data models to monitor and manage vehicle risk while evaluating a borrower's ability to utilise the asset. The company's sustainable business model with strong leasing unit economics and minimal loss ratio across ₹450 crore of deployed assets will serve as the base for building its financing arm.
Shraddha Srimal, CEO of NovaFusion Capital, emphasized that the company's focus will be on financing India's transition to electric mobility across any kind of climate-positive assets. As reported by The Hindu BusinessLine, Srimal highlighted that their area of play is really across any kind of climate-positive assets, with the focus going to be electric vehicles because that's where they see the main play from a commercial transition point of view. She noted that the opportunity is not simply to finance more vehicles, but to build a new credit architecture around clean mobility, suitable for its mass adoption. The company has already built a 5+ year track record in EV leasing and financing, with more than 35,000 EV assets from 2Ws to batteries to buses, funded through its own and partner balance sheets while recording minimal credit losses. The company is backed by ADB, IvyCap Ventures, AdvantEdge Founders and Trucks Venture Capital.
