Samsung Finance+ Digital Lending Platform Launched in India

Aiming to make it easy for consumers to buy Samsung Galaxy smartphones, the South Korean smartphone maker on Thursday launched its "made in India" digital lending platform called Samsung Finance+ in the country. Samsung has partnered with New Delhi-headquartered DMI Finance to launch Samsung Finance+ in the country.

"Irrespective of the fact that a consumer has a history of credit or not, we will give an offer to him or her," Mohandeep Singh, Senior Vice President, Mobile Business, Samsung India, told IANS.

To begin with, the handset maker is launching Samsung Finance+ at 5,000 stores across 30 cities.

When asked about the expansion of the digital lending platform, Singh said: "We plan to reach up to 10,000 retail stores across 100 cities by the end of the year."

Samsung Finance+ is currently available in Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, and Surat, among other cities.

"It is not just the top cities. We've got a mix of all cities... In the second phase of expansion too, we will have a mix of cities," Singh noted.

According to the company, almost all consumers applying for finance would get an offer on the Galaxy smartphone of their choice.

Samsung Finance+ was developed in India at the company's R&D Institute India in Bengaluru.

"SRI-B engineers worked closely with SIEL from early 2018 in assessing market requirements, designing product features, running limited pilots to validate the concepts and building a data driven, scalable multi-sided lending platform which can meet the demands of a market like India," noted Singh.

The platform is fully digital which means users will have a paperless journey with the in-store Samsung promoter assisting them customer through the entire process.

"We are honoured to have worked closely with Samsung over the past 24 months to deliver the first true partnership in India between an OEM and a lender," said Shivashish Chatterjee, Co-Founder, DMI Finance.

The customers need to log into the in-store Samsung Finance+ application on a Galaxy Tab.

After filling their personal details for a simple KYC verification and credit scoring, they will get an offer screen on various Galaxy smartphones.