MUFG Bank is hoping to step up the pace of investments in India, where it has an exposure of over $10 billion, including large corporate banking business and investments in start-ups, a top official said. 

Over the last five years, the Japanese bank has invested around $2.7 billion in a little over 100 start-ups, Managing Executive Officer and Chief Executive for Asia Pacific, Masakazu Osawa, told businessline on the sidelines of a global fintech conference in the city. 

One of its best known investments in India is KreditBee, a Bengaluru-based lending tech start-up. 

Strategic investor

Osawa said it is more of a strategic investor rather than a financial investor. “We are not only looking at financial returns.” He said its investment philosophy was guided by the technology that the start-ups had, especially in the financial services space, that could be deployed in the bank itself. 

While it focused on large corporate business in India, transaction banking such as deposit taking, trade finance, issuance of LCs and forex platforms was also vital. “So if any start-ups have any specific technologies and ideas that can be deployed directly in our products and services, we would deploy those ideas for sure,” he added. 

“These are the strategies that we are looking at when investing in India,” he said. The bank has been investing in Indian start-ups through the MUFG Ganesha Fund launched in 2022. 

Last week, the bank announced that it will invest $332 million more in Indian NBFC DMI Finance, in which it had earlier invested around $230 million in 2023. It was also one of the lenders to UltraTech which recently raised $500 million in sustainability linked financing. 

When asked about reports of MUFG investing in YES Bank, Osawa refused to comment.

Related Topics