MUFG Bank announces additional investment in DMI Finance
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and its consolidated subsidiary, MUFG Bank announced that MUFG Bank will make an additional investment of INR 27,988 million (approximately JPY 49 billion) in DMI Finance — a digital financial services business in India.
In the Asia-Pacific, which MUFG considers its second home market, there is an accelerating trend of digital financial service providers leveraging the latest technology developments to offer financial services to unbanked or underbanked consumers and SMEs. To capture growth in this area, MUFG has been continuously investing in the region’s leading digital start-ups and tech firms including the recent investment in Ascend Money in June 2024 and Globe Fintech Innovations in August 2024. MUFG has also launched the “MUFG Openly-connected Digital Ecosystem” (MODE), an initiative to form a digital ecosystem aimed at knowledge sharing and value-increasing activities among companies MUFG invests in.
India is a large market where rapid economic growth is expected, wherein the accelerated development of digital financial services is also foreseen due to the spread of the internet and various policies promoting digitalization. MUFG has been working to support the growth of Indian startups through the MUFG Ganesha Fund, which was launched in March 2022.
DMI Finance is a digital financial services provider primarily engaged in consumer finance in India. Leveraging its cutting-edge technology, the company offers POS loans to customers through partnerships with various external parties. In addition, DMI Finance provides cross-sell loans to customers with a certain level of creditworthiness, which are also made possible through its partnerships. The company has established such a unique business model in India’s digital lending industry and has provided its services to a cumulative total of 15.2 million customers (as of March 2024).
In April 2023, MUFG made a strategic investment in DMI Finance. The company has since successfully expanded its business scale by building a robust track record in its consumer finance business through the partnership model and the cross-sell loans service. Furthermore, considering the progress of the collaboration between MUFG and DMI Finance (including business collaborations with MUFG group companies and portfolio companies, provision of MUFG’s financial solutions, and knowledge sharing of DMI Finance’s technological expertise), MUFG has decided to make an additional investment in the company.
This strategic investment in a major player in India’s digital financial services industry aims to further capture growth in the area. Additionally, by strengthening the relationship with this key company within MUFG’s digital ecosystem, MUFG aims to further expand the depth of its MODE initiative through the accumulation of additional knowledge surrounding digital technology, and it will also pursue additional opportunities pertaining to possible business collaborations within the Group. Through this investment, MUFG will further strengthen its platform in Asia and enhance the value of its franchises over the medium to long term, as well as contribute to financial inclusion in the region.
Please follow us to read more about Finance & FinTech in Japan, like hundreds of readers do every day. We invite you to also register for our short weekly digest, the “Japan FinTech Observer”, on Medium or on LinkedIn. Our global Finance & FinTech Podcast, “eXponential Finance” is also available through its own LinkedIn newsletter, or via our Podcast Page.
Should you live in Tokyo, or just pass through, please also join our meetup. In any case, our YouTube channel and LinkedIn page are there for you as well.
