DMI Finance Private Limited has announced the closure of a $47 million (around Rs 347.5 crore) equity investment round from new investor Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank Limited (SuMi) and two other existing investors.
SuMi joins existing investors Liechtenstein-based asset management firm New Investment Solutions and South Korean investment firm NXC Corporation in the equity round, taking DMI Finance’s total equity base to $500 million (approximately Rs 3,700 crore), the company said in a statement.
DMI Finance is also backed by Dabur India promoter’s Burman Family Office, among other investors.
New Delhi-based DMI Finance was founded in 2008 by former Citigroup executives Shivashish Chatterjee and Yuvraj C Singh, and has been in the real estate financing space for over a decade. It is the non-banking financial company (NBFC) of the DMI Group, and has been lending since 2009. It provides personal loans, lines of credit, buy now pay later (BNPL), OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) financing and MSME loans.
DMI Finance calls itself a full-stack digital lending and loan life cycle management platform, and has a pan-India customer base of over six million, which is expected to grow at least 10% month-on-month through 2022.
“Digital financing in India is entering a high-growth phase, and will be instrumental in achieving financial inclusion. DMI is rightly placed to capitalise on the opportunity, as it has successfully combined fintech and last-mile reach capabilities to service the aspiring consumer base in India,” a spokesperson for SuMi said.
Currently, the company has 40 offices in India, with a pan-India credit platform focused on core businesses in digital, consumer and MSME finance, housing finance, wholesale finance, and asset management.
In June 2018, VCCircle reported that the alternative investment arm of DMI had raised Rs 1,600 crore for its real estate-focused fund.
Meanwhile, SuMi, which was established in 1925, is Japan's largest trust bank, with 224 trillion Japanese Yen (around $1.95 trillion) of custody assets and 87 trillion Japanese Yen (about $760 billion) of assets under management.
Last month, the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) picked up 74.9% stake in another non-bank lender Fullerton India Credit Company Ltd from Fullerton Financial Holdings Pte Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore’s Temasek.
The SMFG group is also an equity partner in debt-financing platform Northern Arc Capital.
