Japanese trading company Marubeni Corp. will become the largest shareholder of Singaporean fintech company AND Global Pte. Ltd., the Japanese company said in a news release Tuesday.

Marubeni plans to expand AND Global's consumer digital financial service, currently run in Mongolia, elsewhere, with a Marubeni spokeswoman naming Southeast Asia as the key area of expansion.

The Japanese and Singaporean companies concluded a third-party share allotment deal Monday. AND Global said it has secured strategic equity investment worth $10.3 million in the initial round, led by Marubeni, the amount of whose investment has not been disclosed.

AND Global, established in 2017, has a fintech research and development unit in Ulaanbaatar and operates mobile lending and e-wallet businesses in Mongolia.

The number of users of its mobile lending service is more than 175,000 while the e-wallet service has more than 430,000 users in the country, according to the Singaporean firm.

Marubeni, which sees consumer digital financial services as a growth area, signed a strategic partnership deal with AND Global in April.

The Japanese company said it plans to continue supporting AND Global's global expansion after the investment, including dispatching human resources to the firm.

The Tokyo-based trading giant sees Southeast Asia crucial for the consumer service's expansion due to a prospective increase in middle-income consumers, the spokeswoman told NNA.

AND Global's corporate fintech solution service will be offered to banks and other entities regardless of country or region, she said. (NNA/Kyodo)

==Kyodo

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