Astranova Mobility's lending subsidiary, NovaFusion Capital, has received approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC). The licence, granted within 90 days of application, enables the company to offer direct lending products alongside its existing electric vehicle leasing and asset-management operations. The company says capital for an initial ₹200 crore deployment is already in place.
Founded in 2023 by Kunal Mundra and Grip Invest, Astranova Mobility — formerly Electrifi Mobility — operates as a full-stack EV asset-management and financing platform. To date, the company has funded more than 35,000 electric vehicles, spanning two-wheelers, batteries and buses, with a combined value of over ₹450 crore deployed across its own and partner balance sheets. Its backers include the Asian Development Bank, IvyCap Ventures, AdvantEdge Founders and Trucks Venture Capital.
The NBFC licence shifts the company from a leasing and asset-management model into direct lending. Astranova has positioned NovaFusion Capital as a platform built around the economics of commercial EV ownership — assessing borrowers based not only on credit profiles, but also on asset utilisation, telematics data and income-generation capacity. The company argues that traditional lenders have been slow to serve gig workers and three- and four-wheeler drivers because existing credit models were not designed for asset-dependent income.
India's commercial EV financing market presents a scale opportunity. The country's gig workforce is projected to grow from roughly one crore to three crore workers by 2030, and industry estimates place the total funding requirement for transitioning commercial fleets to clean energy at approximately USD 100 billion. At present, purpose-built financing for this segment remains limited, with most institutional lenders applying credit frameworks developed for conventional vehicles.
Astranova's lending model draws on telematics and operational data collected over five years of leasing activity. The company uses vehicle-level performance data alongside platform and partner information to assess how a vehicle is operated and what income it generates — factors it treats as material to credit risk in commercial mobility.
Kunal Mundra, Founder and CEO of Astranova Mobility, said the NBFC licence would allow the company to take its asset-management capability into direct lending. Shraddha Srimal, CEO of NovaFusion Capital, said the intent was to build a credit architecture designed for mass-market EV adoption, rather than simply extending existing lending frameworks to electric vehicles.
The company's five-year AUM target of ₹5,000 crore would require sustained growth from its current deployment base. Whether it can scale lending operations while maintaining the low credit-loss ratios it reports from its leasing business will be a key variable as NovaFusion Capital moves from approval to active origination.