Third overseas Development Center to further strengthen development capabilities through globalization of the organization

Money Forward Group is opening a development center in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India in February 2025 through its group company, Money Forward India Private Limited. This marks the third overseas development center for the Group, following Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi in Vietnam.

■Background of Establishment of the India Development Center
With the mission “Money Forward, Move your life forward,” Money Forward offers over sixty services for individuals, corporations, and financial institutions. To accelerate engineer recruitment and further strengthen our service development capabilities, we have chosen Chennai as the location for our first development center in India.
India has evolved into an IT powerhouse, with numerous higher education and research institutions such as the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) established since the 1950s, producing many IT engineers who thrive in global tech companies around the world. Chennai, the location of our new development center, is known as the “SaaS Capital of India” and is home to many IT engineers and large-scale development centers of global SaaS companies.
The India development center will work with its Japanese and Vietnamese counterparts to develop the back-office SaaS “Money Forward Cloud” and other products.

■Globalization of Our Development Organization
According to a study by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry^*1, Japan is projected to face a shortage of up to 790,000 IT professionals by 2030. To provide services swiftly, it is crucial to create an environment where diverse talent can thrive, regardless of nationality, and to implement global-standard recruitment practices.
Since 2017, we have been hiring foreign nationals, primarily for engineering roles, to globalize our development organization. We established development centers in Ho Chi Minh City in 2019 and Hanoi in 2022. In 2024, we also adopted English as the official language for our domestic development organization, fostering an environment where diverse talents can excel. As a result, engineers from over forty countries around the world have joined us, with foreign nationals making up more than 40% of our development team.

*1 Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Information Technology Utilization Promotion Division, Survey on IT Human Resource Supply and Demand, April 2019 (Japanese only)

■Head of the Development Center
・Profile of the Head of the India Development Center
Vivek Gokhale – Director and Head, Money Forward India Private Limited
Vivek Gokhale brings over two decades of expertise in leading large-scale technology projects across global markets. He began his career at Vertex Software in 2004, where he spearheaded key initiatives in the telecommunications sector. In 2012, Vivek joined Rakuten, taking on leadership roles in e-commerce development, driving innovation across Tokyo, Singapore, and Bengaluru. In 2023, Vivek joined Money Forward, and he was appointed Director and Head of the India Development Center in April 2024, driving innovation and growth for the company’s overseas expansion.

・Comments on the Establishment of the New Development Center
We are excited to announce the opening of our third overseas development center in Chennai, India. With its rich history as an IT powerhouse, India hosts numerous world-class global IT companies. We are very pleased that the establishment of the India development center marks a significant step forward for our group towards becoming a global tech company. We look forward to leveraging the skills of our engineers in India to drive further innovation at Money Forward. The concept of the India Development Center is “Go Beyond.” Together as the Money Forward Group, we aim to deliver services that are more widely chosen by our users, transcending boundaries of location, country, and role.

Office image of the India Development Center

■About Money Forward India Private Limited
Name: Money Forward India Private Limited
Location: No. 1001 & 1004, Tower B, 10th Floor, World Trade Center, 5/142, Rajiv Gandhi Salai, Perungudi, Chennai – 600096, Tamil Nadu,India^*2
Representative Director: Vivek Gokhale
Business: Development of platform services
URL: https://corp.moneyforward.in/
*2 Scheduled to move in from February 2025.

■About Money Forward
Money Forward, Inc. is the leading SaaS / Fintech company from Japan, listed on the Prime Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (3994.T). We mainly provide B2B SaaS such as online bookkeeping, HR management, contract management, and payroll; now serving more than 370,000 paying customers nationwide. Our consumer-facing service for personal finance management (PFM) now has over 16.6M users.
URL https://corp.moneyforward.com/en/

* All company names and product/service names (including logos) are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

For further information, please contact:
PR Division, Money Forward, Inc.
Email:pr@moneyforward.co.jp