[Funding alert] Experian invests in mobile marketing platform Vserv

Data, analytics, and decisioning company Experian has picked up a strategic stake in smart data mobile marketing platform Vserv Digital Services. While the deal size and amount were undisclosed, the company stated the investment was in line with its vision to boost financial inclusion, by ensuring a friction-free digital onboarding experience for its consumers.

This will be Experian's seventh investment across Asia Pacific over the past two years. In a statement, Sathya Kalyanasundaram, Country Head and Managing Director, Experian India, said,

“We’re excited to partner with Vserv to drive this next phase of growth for both organisations. Vserv’s mobile marketing platform and access to authentic telco datasets through its unique data management platform ensures immediate synergies to our core product propositions."

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This partnership will bring a combination of Experian's data, analytics, and technology expertise along with Vserv's targeting solution to a large internet user base. The team believes that currently, over 45 percent of India's adult population has no access to credit. Thus, one of the biggest challenges faced by the BFSI sector is lack of information in acquiring customers to enable financial inclusion.

At present, Experian has records of over 940 million unique loans in India. The team believes that this partnership will build on the company's initiative to enable financial inclusion by expanding the scoring to new-to-credit (NTC) customers using its in-house analytics capabilities.

"This is yet another step for Experian in championing alternate data partnership clubbed with deeper engagement in the BFSI sector, which aligns with our long-term strategy of scaling India to new heights through organic and inorganic growth opportunities," Sathya said.

With this partnership, the BFSI sector will be able to reach out to specific consumers, offer access to a vast array of financial products and services to a larger consumer base. The team adds that its consent-driven solutions will help remove friction in the consumer onboarding experience. Thus, adding a new dimension for financial institutions.

Dippak Khurana, Co-founder and CEO, Vserv, said,

“This partnership shares our vision of driving effective consumer outreach through innovation in digital marketing technology. We will focus on rolling out smart products for the BFSI sector across the marketing stack as its key business partner. Indian consumers have a huge appetite to adopt friction-free digital sign-ups for financial products. Vserv and Experian will work closely with the BFSI sector to enable it.”

(Edited by Suman Singh)

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