Jay Mart Plc, through its subsidiary J Fintech, aims to lead the personal loan market leader by tapping into the low-income workers and offering nanofinancing service.
In 2016, 1% of Jay Mart's revenue was from fintech, while 95% from mobile sales and debt collection. The company expects revenue from its fintech service to reach 50% by 2020.
Jay Mart's push toward digital transformation is being driven by its corporate venture capital arm, J Ventures Co.
Adisak Sukumvittaya, chief executive of Jay Mart, said the company sees great opportunity in the fintech business, especially in the personal loan segment, with an untapped market of at least 10 million people, those who earn less than 15,000 baht a month.
J Fintech is now waiting for approval by the Bank of Thailand to offer the nanofinancing service. In order to gain the licence, J Fintech increased its registered capital to 2.8 billion baht from 1.2 billion, with plans for an IPO next year.
"We will offer loans of 1,000 baht twice a month to individuals who do not have a regular salary, or provide loans up to 100,000 baht at an interest rate of 36% per year," Mr Adisak said. Payment can be made at Jay Mart or Singer shops.
"This is a blue ocean for us as J Fintech has embraced new technologies to visualise customer demand, and we have Singer direct sales channel that can reach lower income people," he said.
Ekachai Sukumvitaya, deputy chief office of J Ventures, said with 100 million baht registered capital, the company is keen on investing in potential startups in blockchain, artificial intelligent, big data analytic, credit scoring and fintech.
"We have already invested 9.77% in DeepPocket, an e-wallet startup, and 0.31% in Zanroo, for a combined 50 million baht," Mr Ekachai said.
The company also plans to make new joint venture firms with six potential software developers, which it foresees as a software development arm of Jay Mart Group.
J Ventures has already developed a mobile application J Money application, which enables J Fintech customers to apply its personal loan financing service and check their credit limit and payment.
J Fintech is first non-bank provider who offers personal loan financing via mobile app. It currently has some 100,000 customers, a figure which it hopes will increase through the new app with 10,000 users a month.
Mr Adisak said J Fintech expects to increase its loan financing service to 3.5 billion baht by 2017, with 4% of bad debt.
By second quarter of 2018, J Fintech will introduce new features of J Money app that users can withdraw cash at Jaymart shops or Singer branches.
"We also plan to make J Money as e-wallet so people can buy or pay for products and services by scanning the QR code," Mr Ekachai said.
