DMI Raises $230 Mn In Funding Led By New Investment Solutions

Delhi-based diversified financial services DMI Group has raised $230 Mn (INR 1,619.4 Cr) in a fresh funding round led by New Investment Solutions, an asset management company.

Founded in 2008 by Shivashish Chatterjee and Yuvraja C. Singh, DMI enables corporate lending, affordable housing finance, digital consumer and MSME finance, and asset management. DMI Group companies include digital and consumer MSME finance businesses under DMI Finance Pvt. Ltd, a non-banking financial company, and housing finance business under DMI Housing Finance Pvt. Ltd.

With a digital-only approach, DMI Finance’s consumer and SME lending operation gives fintech startups API access to sandboxes, thus helping them develop bespoke financial products. The business model for DMI is such that the partners act as front-end demand aggregators and solve the problems of customer UI/UX and brand awareness while DMI acts as the credit underwriter and balance sheet partner.

The company plans to use the fresh funds to fund balance sheet growth of DMI Finance and DMI Housing Finance. Amicus Services acted as DMI’s legal counsel on this transaction.

Takasahi Sato, founder of NIS, said, “The DMI team is so incredible that they have been performing beyond our expectations since we first partnered with DMI in 2010. We trust the team to take advantage of all the growth opportunities with deep insight that India offers in financial services. They maintain a firm handle on risk and an organisational focus on transparency and ethical conduct.”

DMI Group: $700 Mn Funding, 30% M-o-M Growth And More

DMI has more than $852 Mn (INR 6,000 Cr) assets under management. Till date, the company has raised more than $700 Mn (INR 4,928.8 Cr) in funding.

Shivashish Chatterjee, cofounder and Joint Managing Director of DMI, said that the company’s business is growing 30% M-o-M. “DMI intends to be the credit partner of choice in the rapidly-growing retail and MSME credit segments,” he added.

Yuvraja C. Singh, Co-Founder and Joint Managing Director of DMI, said, “With others facing balance sheet pressure, given the lack of liquidity, we feel now is a good time to make further investments in the business and hopefully grab market share.”

DMI with its 38 live partners signs up for heterogeneous partnerships and 80% of DMI’s partners are developing bespoke credit solutions across diverse borrower populations. Some of DMI’s fintech partners, such as Bengaluru-based Slicepay, work with students while others such as ZestMoney work with ecommerce companies like Flipkart and Amazon.

According to a BCG report, between 2014 and 2017, the share of NBFCs in total loans was estimated to have increased from 21% to 44%, whereas for public sector banks, it fell from 49% to 28%.

According to Inc42’s flagship Ecosystem Report, Fintech as a sector has received $6.3 Bn funding since 2008 across 815 deals. This continues to be the trend, as the Indian Tech Startup Funding H1 2018 report, states that fintech startups raised combined funding of $631.29 Mn across 70 deals in H1 2018.