JD.com And ZestFinance Form JV To Expand Consumer Credit In China - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Chinese online direct sales company JD.com, Inc. (JD) and financial services technology company ZestFinance, Inc. announced they have formed a joint venture called JD-ZestFinance Gaia, to support the development of consumer credit in China.

Lenders in China lack the data typically used in established markets to determine creditworthiness, as Chinese consumers often have little-to-no credit history, leaving a huge gap.

The JV will leverage ZestFinance's machine learning-based credit-decisioning technology and JD.com's reservoir of consumer data to determine creditworthiness of Chinese consumers for companies in China.

As part of the deal, JD.com is also making an investment in ZestFinance to help fund further development of credit risk evaluation services for China and extend consumer access to credit.