Astranova Mobility Arm NovaFusion Capital Secures RBI NBFC Licence and Targets Rs 5000 Crore AUM

Astranova Mobility’s dedicated lending arm, NovaFusion Capital, has received regulatory approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC). The green-financing arm secured the registration within 90 days of application and has outlined an ambitious roadmap to reach ₹5,000 crore in Assets Under Management (AUM) over the next five years.

NovaFusion Capital has already secured capital commitments to deploy its initial tranche of ₹200 crore. The financing platform aims to solve liquidity bottlenecks in India's commercial transition to clean mobility by catering directly to commercial vehicle operators, gig economy workers, and fleet enterprises.

Strategic Shift Toward Commercial Clean Mobility

The NBFC licence marks a pivotal operational transition for Astranova Mobility, evolving from asset management and leasing into direct, regulated credit underwriting. To date, Astranova Mobility has leased over ₹450 crore in electric vehicle (EV) assets. The platform is backed by institutional investors, including the Asian Development Bank (ADB), IvyCap Ventures, AdvantEdge Founders, and Trucks Venture Capital.

According to Astranova Mobility Founder and CEO Kunal Mundra, the lending arm will strictly prioritize income-generating assets.

"With the help of this NBFC, our aspiration really is to deploy ₹5,000 crore worth of financing in the next five years," Mundra noted. "It will be primarily for electric vehicles and only for commercial operators. That means everyone who earns a livelihood with the help of these assets."

Building Specialized Underwriting for Climate Assets

Mainstream commercial banks and diversified NBFCs have historically faced difficulties underwriting small commercial EV operators due to lack of traditional credit histories, volatile residual battery values, and unproven secondary markets. NovaFusion Capital plans to mitigate these structural risks by integrating asset-level telematics, battery health tracking, and operational route data into its underwriting parameters.

Shraddha Srimal, CEO of NovaFusion Capital, emphasized that the venture addresses an essential macro credit deficit in India's decarbonization push:

Core Operating Focus Areas:

• Underwriting loans for commercial two-wheelers, three-wheelers, and four-wheelers used in logistics and ride-hailing fleets.
• Leveraging vehicle telematics and partner fleet data to evaluate asset utilization, battery degradation, and borrower earnings capacity in real time.
• Expanding credit architecture across broader climate-positive commercial hardware beyond traditional automotive finance.

Srimal noted that India requires an estimated $100 billion to transition its commercial vehicle ecosystem to electric powertrains. As fleet economics reach total cost of ownership (TCO) parity against internal combustion engines, structured credit is emerging as the primary bottleneck to fleet electrification.

Industry Significance for the Indian Market

The expansion of specialized NBFCs into EV financing coincides with rapid expansion in India’s gig economy, which is projected to expand to approximately 3 crore workers by 2030. Commercial last-mile delivery providers and urban transport aggregators are facing aggressive zero-emission fleet mandates, driving sharp borrowing demand among driver-partners.

With RBI oversight, NovaFusion Capital gains direct access to domestic credit lines, co-lending partnerships with scheduled commercial banks, and structured debt markets. As India accelerates toward its broader climate goals, the entry of dedicated, tech-driven NBFCs is expected to improve debt availability, reduce borrowing costs for transport entrepreneurs, and establish reliable valuation benchmarks for the secondary EV ecosystem.

Tags: NovaFusion Capital Astranova Mobility Reserve Bank of India NBFC Electric Vehicles Green Financing