Xiaomi plans to foray into consumer finance and business-to-business lending by floating a non-banking financial company (NBFC), the Chinese smartphone and electronics major has said in its latest regulatory disclosure. The new company, Xiaomi Financial Services India, will soon seek the Reserve Bank of India’s approval to operate as an NBFC.
The company was incorporated on October 10 as a subsidiary of Xiaomi Finance HK Ltd and Xiaomi Singapore Fintech, data accessed from the Registrar of Companies (RoC) showed. As per the memorandum of association of the company, the directors include Xiaomi Corp cofounder Feng Hong and Xiaomi India MD Manu Kumar Jain.
Xiaomi Financial Services plans to provide loans to consumers for purchasing electronics, home appliances, lifestyle products, vehicles, furniture, tools, utensils and office equipment, and give credit to firms, corporates or any other entity “for the purpose of purchase and acquisition of goods, merchandise, assets of any nature”, according to the Chinese firm’s RoC disclosure.
Xiaomi globally sells all these consumer products and has plans to launch most of them in India over the next two years, having already forayed into TV, smart home and lifestyle products. The firm has indicated that it will operate these services through online platforms.
The development was reported by retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com