Telecom operator Bharti Airtel has purchased a strategic equity stake in Indian financial technology firm Seynse Technologies for an undisclosed sum.
The deal was executed through Airtel subsidiary Bharti Airtel Services, the telecom operator said in a stock exchange filing.
Seynse offers a digital lending platform known as Loan Singh, which is designed to offer easy loans for credit-worthy but underserved borrowers through a proprietary credit scoring engine.
Bharti Airtel global CIO and director of engineering Harmeen Mehta said: “Over the years, Airtel has developed strong in-house data science capabilities that enable us to serve our customers better. Seynse’s advanced credit scoring algorithms based on multiple sources and digital analytics will add immense value to our innovation factory.”
The alliance with Seynse will allow Airtel to offer targeted products and solutions to the telecom firm’s customer base of more than 270 million, Mehta said.
Seynse director Gourav Jaswal added: “This partnership will give Seynse the opportunity to innovate for a much wider audience and add to its product portfolio.”
The latest move comes shortly after the telecom firm launched its payment bank operations in 29 states across India. The payments bank will invest INR30bn to develop its network and payments ecosystem.