Robi, the leading digital services provider in Bangladesh, and YABX, a fintech 
company incubated by Comviva, have partnered to facilitate financing for 
smartphones for Robi's customers in Bangladesh.

     (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/829150/Robi_YABX_Bangladesh.jpg )

In this regard, Robi's Managing Director and CEO, Mahtab Uddin Ahmed and YABX's 
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Rajat Dayal signed a Memorandum of 
Understanding (MoU) at the Mobile World Congress 2019, in Barcelona, on behalf 
of their respective organizations.

Within one year of launching 4.5G service, Robi has created the largest 4.5G 
network in Bangladesh. YABX, on the other hand, provides the technology to 
underwrite smartphone financing for customers in the emerging markets.
In doing so, the company builds customer profiles from tens of thousands of 
data points, using data from the mobile network. This, in turn, enables the 
customers to purchase their first smartphone. Therefore, it is believed that 
this partnership will make a significant difference in promoting digital 
lifestyle in the country.

In addition to this, YABX's state-of-the-art device impairment technology 
enables financial institutions to launch EMI plans while YABX manages the 
complete customer journey through digital channels, which includes acquisition, 
disbursals, collections, etc.

Commenting on the partnership, Mahtab Uddin Ahmed, Managing Director and Chief 
Executive Officer, Robi Axiata Limited, said, "Average smartphone price, as 
percentage of Gross National Income (GNI) per capita for Bangladesh, is one of 
the highest in the region. This is a key challenge to smartphone penetration, 
which currently is one of the lowest in the region. We are confident that 
through this partnership with YABX, the high entry-cost barrier will be 
eliminated, which will help in driving smartphone adoption and reduce 
inequality in Bangladesh as per SDG goal. Moreover, this will add another 
feather to the Big Data analytics and Fin-tech initiatives of Robi."

Speaking on the occasion, Rajat Dayal, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, 
YABX, said, "Our collaboration with Robi is a part of the company's long-term 
strategy to enable digital micro-loans services in Bangladesh. Our partnership 
would facilitate the vision of affordable and convenient handset financing in 
Bangladesh. The main economic and social objectives of our partnership is to 
help the population of Bangladesh gain instant access to smartphones in an 
affordable and convenient manner, thus enhancing financial inclusion through 
digital inclusion."

For more details, please contact:
Sundeep Mehta
Sr. Manager
Corporate Communications
pr@comviva.com

Source: Comviva