Bueno Finance, a fintech start-up that provides loans to blue-collar workers, has merged with BetterPlace, a blue-collar workforce management company. The merger comes as Bueno Finance was reportedly unable to secure funding.

As part of the Y-Combinator Winter 2021 batch, Bueno Finance raised about $3 million in total funding from Goat Capital, JAM Fund, Olive Tree Capital, Good Water Capital and angel investors like Kunal Shah and Anupam Mittal. Meanwhile, BetterPlace has raised about $80 million in total equity from Macquarie Capital, Site Capital Partners, Jungle Ventures, British International Investment, among others. Both firms cater to the blue-collar workforce and have clients including food delivery companies Swiggy and Zomato.

Bueno Finance was founded by Saurav Gandhi and Sandeep Arora in 2019. Arora quit the firm last year “following a disagreement with Saurav Gandhi and investor Goat Capital,” according to a report. 

BetterPlace, founded by Pravin Agarwala and Uday Singh in 2015, has been on an acquisition spree for the last two years, acquiring several start-ups including OLX People, AasaanJobs, Oust Labs, Waah Jobs, OkayGo and EzeDox. This year, it entered the South East Asia market with the acquisition of two companies, Indonesia-based MyRobin and Malaysia-based Troopers.