MUFG Bank will use AI (artificial intelligence) to routinely collect and analyze the management data of ventures (startups) around the world and introduce an investment model that adds scoring by the end of the year. It will be used to discover promising investment destinations, such as startups that have just been established with high growth potential. It plans to invest a total of about $500 million (about 70 billion yen) in ventures in partnership with Israeli IT companies and US investment funds.
Specifically, with the consent of the target venture, business and financial data such as daily sales, number of service users, and cancellation status are automatically collected. Based on the collected data, AI evaluates and scores about 15 areas, such as the company's cash flow and future growth potential.
MUFG Bank will use this score as one of the criteria to decide whether to invest. Scoring criteria can also be changed according to industry and growth stage, so that investments are not judged based on uniform criteria.
Traditionally, banks have tried to understand the business situation of small and medium-sized enterprises such as ventures by having their employees visit them. If AI can collect and analyze a large amount of daily information in a short time, it will be possible to greatly reduce labor and speed up investment decisions.
For the venture side, it saves the trouble of creating materials to explain to the bank. Business expansion can be expected to speed up if banks make investment decisions more quickly and raise funds.
However, data collection is premised on the consent of the venture. In Japan, not a few companies hesitate to provide important management information. For this reason, the target will be expanded to Asia and Europe, and it is assumed that Internet service companies such as electronic commerce (e-commerce), which have a strong demand for funds.
With low interest rates prolonging in Japan, megabanks have been investing in ventures since the late 2000s. However, it was difficult to judge investment decisions for ventures, and the risk of loss was high. Mitsubishi UFJ wants to differentiate itself from rival banks by introducing an AI-based investment model.
Read More Here (Japanese): https://tinyurl.com/594w53e6
Original News Source: (c) The Yomiuri Shimbun Online
The Japan Daily by AKONIKK #japan #japanbusiness #akonikk
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