T E Narasimhan

Volkswagen Finance Pvt. Ltd. (VWFPL)India, part of Volkswagen Financial Services, has increased its shareholding in Chennai-based KUWY Technology Service Pvt Ltd. (KUWY) by picking up a majority stake in the latter. The company did not disclose the value of the deal and other details.

VWFL first picked up a 25 per cent stake in the company in September 2019.

KUWY is an instant lending digital platform and through this acquisition Volkswagen Finance Pvt Ltd will grow its new & used car business through KUWY’s pan India network on car financing. The acquisition is also in line with the Volkswagen Group’s - India 2.0 strategy of VWFPL in its quest to offer added value to its consumers through digital channels.

Aashish Deshpande, MD and CEO of Volkswagen Finance Pvt Ltd said,

“Our investment in KUWY is strategic in nature as we intend to make KUWY an important part of our India strategy. With this acquisition, we aim to enhance the synergies with KUWY Technology and make KUWY the face of Volkswagen Finance Private Limited (‘VWFPL’) in India for retail financing business,”

This is a step towards the evolution of the consumer journey in the digital space by offering a simplified and agile solution to our customers.Through this association VWFPL will grow its New and Used Car business through KUWY’s PAN India network and technology platforms.Supporting the multi-brand approach of KUWY, we are still open to further investors - also under the new additional conditions.”

VWFPL’s association with KUWY will help improve efficiency in processes and reduce the loan processing time making it a win-win for both dealers and customers. VWFPL will however, continue to provide dealer funding & insurance products and services to the Volkswagen India Group dealer network.

"KUWY is the No.1 Automotive Retail Fintech Platform for New & Used Cars in India and have been advancing and refining our proprietary, purpose-built platform to provide significant benefits to our growing ecosystem of Dealers, DSA’s, Portals, Consumers, OEM’s and Bank Partners. Our platform enables each of these constituents to benefit from enhanced access to each other and to our technology, resulting in a virtuous cycle of increasing engagement and value creation. We believe our ecosystem grows stronger with scale,” added B Ganesh Kumar, CEO – KUWY Technology Service Pvt Ltd.

VWFPL, incorporated in 2009 and headquartered in Mumbai, is owned by Volkswagen Financial Services AG, Germany. Volkswagen Financial Services (‘VWFS’) AG is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Volkswagen AG and has its headquarters in Braunschweig, Germany. Volkswagen Financial Services is a business division of the Volkswagen AG group of companies.

KUWY is an Automotive FinTech Company, powering Instant Lending across Point of Sale. KUWY connects borrowers to lenders and uses its “Click & Drive” Technology to Digitize each step of the Loan Origination Process and has the largest and most trusted Dealer/Lender network to grow loan originations and digital retailing. Headquartered in Chennai KUWY employs over 154 people across 350 locations.