TOKYO -- Japanese financial group SBI Holdings has taken a stake in Singapore-based fintech startup AND Global, which provides microloans in Mongolia via its smartphone app.
SBI took part in the startup's $15.3 million private placement round through an investment unit in Singapore.
AND Global calculates borrowers' creditworthiness using artificial intelligence so it can offer small-scale, unsecured lending starting at just tens of dollars. The Japanese group will help AND Global extend its services to Cambodia, where the startup will partner with SBI's local banking unit.
The companies also will work with trading house Marubeni, one of AND Global's investors, to expand into other Asian markets enjoying growing demand for digital financial services.
AND Global, founded in 2017, operates a development hub in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar. Its microfinancing app has roughly 930,000 registered users in the country, equivalent to about 30% of the total population, tapping rising demand for smartphone-based financing over more conventional options like credit cards.
