As the world’s most populous region, Asia counts the largest number of low-income households worldwide. At the same time, the continent is among the fastest growing regions in world. This creates an extremely dynamic environment where developments are moving at a high pace and millions of people have been lifted out of poverty. Asia has some large and mature microfinance markets and in line with global developments, Triple Jump has expanded its exposure in these markets. Not only is microfinance important, but also access to finance for micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSME’s) is greatly needed in emerging economies promoting economic development and job creation. Therefore, Triple Jump has also been supporting various financial intermediaries addressing this specific segment.
Freek Kortekaas, Triple Jump’s Asia Pacific Regional Manager, says “The fast developing Asian economies provides Triple Jump with good growth opportunities. Furthermore, the financial landscape is changing rapidly with fintech emerging and financial institutions becoming more tech-enabled. So not only are we growing in Asia we are also keen to support these upcoming and innovative business models.”
In August, Triple Jump gained two new clients in the region: Midland Microfin and Neogrowth, both located in India.
Established in 2011, Midland Microfin Limited (MML) is a registered non-deposit taking, non-banking micro-finance company with its head office in Jalandhar, Punjab. MML is primarily focused on providing micro loans up to EUR 500 to rural poor women for income generating activities, under the joint liability group lending model. As of August 2019, MML has a portfolio of almost EUR 85m, an outreach of 360k clients, and a network of 164 branches reaching across six states within Western, Northern and Eastern regions of India. Triple Jump is proud to support Midland in its mission to promote financial inclusion in rural India,where microfinance penetration is relatively low and there are still a large number of households without access to formal financial services.
Neogrowth Credit Private Limited (Neogrowth), is a Mumbai based, tech-enabled, non-banking financial company that provides working capital to small and medium sized retailers. Pioneered in India by its promoters, its unique and innovative lending model is based on credit and debit card transactions. The company lends to retailers against future card receivables with advances from 12-24 months and average loan outstanding of EUR 20k. Their payment capacity is assessed by analyzing sales from credit/debit cards statements and payments are made on a daily basis by withholding a fixed amount of credit card sales. As of March 2019, the company operates through 21 branches reaching assets under management of EUR 130m extended to over 9k merchants. Providing funding to Neogrowth closely corresponds with Triple Jump’s ambitions in the fintech and digitalization space.
