In 2019, Xiaomi launched Mi Pay and Mi Credit.
In less than four years since its launch, the Chinese tech giant Xiaomi has quietly discontinued its Mi Financial Services in the country to focus on its core business services.
A spokesperson from Xiaomi India told TechCrunch that Mi Financial Services was closed in March this year as part of the company’s annual strategic assessment activity and as a response to enhanced focus on our core business services. “In a short span of 4 years, we were able to connect and support thousands of customers. We are working with our partners and supporting our consumers during this process,” the person added.
The move to shut down the Mi Financial Services segment is surprising as the company’s India head Manu Jain just, in August last year, told ET in an interview about its goals to become one of the most prominent players in India’s fin-tech space through Mi Credit and Mi Pay and considered Asia’s third-largest economy as the biggest market after China for Mi Credit.
In March 2019, the company launched Mi Pay, a UPI app that came pre-loaded on all Xiaomi phones and allowed users to transfer money. The app garnered more than 20 million registered users in the country in the same year.
Later that year, the company, in collaboration with local fintech start-ups, launched its personal loan application called Mi Credit. During its pilot phase till November 2019, Xiaomi is said to have disbursed personal loans of up to Rs 28 crore. It later informed that over Rs 125 crore worth of loans were disbursed via its digital lending solution in India till December 2019, according to IANS.
Several Chinese companies, including Xiaomi, has been on the radar of Indian government agencies as political relation between the two neighbors remains conflicted. Xiaomi is undergoing an investigation for violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act for illegally transferring funds abroad “in the guise of royalty payments.”
