Indonesia-Based Lending Fintech Raises US$ 24 Million in Gobi Partners Led Round
by Fintech News Indonesia September 10, 2019Indonesia based SuperAtom has closed its latest funding round of US$24 million. The round was led by Gobi Partners through the Meranti ASEAN Growth Fund with NYSE-listed Cheetah Mobile as a co-investor.
Founded in 2018, SuperAtom is a startup incubated by and spun off from Cheetah Mobile. The company is best known for its P2P consumer lending platform UangMe, which was launched in collaboration with local banks and have been downloaded five million times since.
The platform Uang Me received official approved to operate in Indonesia from Otoritas Jasa Keuangang (OJK) on July 2018.
In a media statement, the company said that its mission is to make financial services more accessible to the masses by integrating global resources: taking low-cost funds from more mature markets such as Europe, Japan, Singapore, and the US, combining them with proven technology and business models from China, and then localizing it for Southeast Asian markets such as Indonesia.
Commenting on the round, Kay Mok Ku, Managing Partner of Gobi, said,
“SuperAtom is a TechFin startup; they are a technology company providing financial services. These services are especially relevant in markets such as Southeast Asia, where traditional banking penetration is low and the proliferation of smartphones is high. Tech companies are able to reach out to underserved consumers in this region with their innovative services, and essentially win the day.”
Scarlett Xiao, Founder and President of SuperAtom, explained the startup’s decision to enter Southeast Asia and set up their business in Indonesia,
“Our mission is to provide hardworking people in this region with easy access to credit via a convenient platform. A market’s credit system reaches an inflection point once the GDP per capita reaches US$4,000. Southeast Asia is now fast approaching that turning point, where Fintech will start to take off. Countries like Indonesia will see GDP per capita grow from US$3,800 to US$7,000 in the next ten years, so the market potential is enormous. Beyond Indonesia, Philippines is also a very attractive market as it has a population of 100 million, and their GDP is growing at 6.2%. We are getting ready to enter this exciting market as we have just been awarded the financial license by the Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission.”
