Xiaomi To Offer Full Spectrum Of Financial Services In India Via Partners

Xiaomi is bringing in offerings like gold loans, credit line cards, and insurance products as it looks to provide the full spectrum of financial services across payment, lending, and insurance in India, its India head Manu Jain said.

Speaking with PTI, Jain said these financial services will be offered in partnership with organizations like Axis Bank, IDFC Bank, Aditya Birla Finance Ltd, Stashfin, Money View, Early Salary, and Credit Vidya.

He stated that Mi Credit, a curated marketplace for personal loans of up to Rs 1 lakh, in 2019 witnessed a lot of euphorias, and more than one lakh loans have already been disbursed.

However, as the pandemic hit, its lending partners took a backseat.

''Many quarters went into re-thinking about the future of Mi Credit or Mi Financial Services should look like. We are now back to growing this particular platform. Q1 2021 versus Q4 2020, we grew 95 percent, and Q1 2021 versus Q1 2020, we saw 35 percent growth,'' he added.

Jain highlighted that the company is working on building a full spectrum platform concerning overall financial services as well as a credit perspective.

He said Xiaomi is adding insurance vertical to its platform as well as expanding the lending category with the addition of offerings like gold loans and credit line cards.

The top executive said Mi Credit will now offer a higher pre-approved loan of Rs 25 lakh (against Rs 1 lakh previously) and a tenure of up to 60 months.

Besides, the company has started offering SME Loans and credit line cards as well.

''Mi Credit, in partnership with Stashfin, has launched Credit Line cards.

''It is a unique product that comes with a proposition of Buy Now Pay Later combined with a personal loan to enable the customer to utilize the offering across channels without any limitations,'' Xiaomi India Financial Services Head Ashish Khandelwal said.

Another service that will be launched in the next few weeks is a gold loan, he added.

Jain said 40 percent of the company's credit product users are self-employed and the remaining 60 percent are salaried employees.

''In 2021, we are planning to further diversify and provide 20 percent of the loans to MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises). We have launched business loans to meet the emerging needs of entrepreneurs and MSMEs,'' he added.

Xiaomi's Mi Pay service, which was launched in 2018, had touched 20 million registered users in a year. This number has now crossed 50 million users.

Talking about the insurance segment, Khandelwal said Xiaomi has partnered with ICICI Lombard to curate a health insurance product.

This was piloted in July and will continue to be offered.

Xiaomi also gases a cyber insurance offering, and more than 25,000 customers have been covered so far.

''Going ahead, insur-tech is another proposition that we are working on in a curated manner in partnerships,'' he added.