Volkswagen Finance on Monday said it has increased its shareholding in Chennai-based automotive lending startup KUWY Technology to a majority stake, effective January 5.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed in the statement.
The Mumbai-based financial services arm of the German automaker had in September 2019 picked up a 25% stake in the startup.
Volkswagen Finance said it plans to use the strategic alliance to access KUWY’s technology, India network and expertise to boost its new and old car financing business.
“With this acquisition, we aim to enhance the synergies with KUWY Technology and make KUWY the face of VWFPL in India for retail financing business. This is a step towards the evolution of the consumer journey in the digital space by offering a simplified and agile solution to our customers,” Aashish Deshpande, managing director and CEO of Volkswagen Finance, said.
Deshpande said they intend to make KUWY an important part of Volkswagen Finance’s India 2.0 strategy, which is focused on offering added value through digitization. The company is also open to further investors, albeit under new additional conditions, he said.
Volkswagen Finance said it will continue to provide funding and insurance products to Volkswagen India Group dealers.
KUWY’s instant lending platform, founded in 2017, digitally connects eligible borrowers with lenders. Its association with Volkswagen Finance is expected to drive efficiencies for the startup and reduce its overall loan processing time, benefitting both dealers and end-consumers.
“... (The company has been) advancing and refining our proprietary, purpose-built platform to provide significant benefits to our growing ecosystem of dealers, DSAs, portals, consumers, OEMs and bank partners,” B Ganesh Kumar, CEO of KUWY, said.
“Our platform enables each of these constituents to benefit from enhanced access to each other and to our technology, resulting in a virtuous cycle of increasing engagement and value creation,” he said.