Author: Fintech News Indonesia

BRI Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Indonesia’s state-owned BRI Group, has collaborated with the School of Business and Management ITB (SBM ITB) to launch venture capital university courses in 2021. Reportedly the first of its kind in Indonesia, the programme aims to support the emerging venture capital field and exemplifies university-industry collaboration where business leaders share their insights and expertise with students. The courses will be embedded in both SBM ITB’s undergraduate and graduate programmes on Jakarta and Bandung campuses. The students will learn about basic venture capital principles and gain exposure to various startup ecosystems. Additionally, they…

FinAccel, the parent company of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) platform Kredivo, plans to go public through a special purpose acquisition company VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings II (VPCB) sponsored by Victory Park Capital (VPC), valuing it at US$2.5 billion. VPC, a global investment firm headquartered in Chicago, has a long-standing relationship with Kredivo will be providing an initial US$100 million credit facility to the company in July 2020 and upsizing it to US$200 million in June 2021. It is expected to result in over US$430 million of cash on the combined company’s balance sheet, reflecting a contribution of up to…

Indonesian e-wallet OVO has launched its first shariah mutual fund product, which comes with one of the lowest buy-in for a product of its kind (less than US$1) and allows investors to instantly cash out their funds in real time. The Syariah Syailendra OVO Bareksa Tunai Likuid mutual fund product is offered exclusively in the OVO app in collaboration with Indonesian asset management fund Syailendra Capital and its strategic partner Bareksa. The firm said in a statement that “by setting the minimum investment threshold to one of the lowest in the industry at just IDR 10,000,- (SG$1 or US$ 0.70)…

Finantier, an Indonesian open finance API platform, has raised an undisclosed 7-figure sum in a seed funding round led by Global Founders Capital and East Ventures. The round was oversubscribed, and funds were raised at a post-money valuation of more than 20 times its pre-seed valuation in November 2020. Participating in the round were Future Shape, an investment and advisory firm founded by Tony Fadell, the co-inventor of the iPhone, Partech Partners, Taurus Ventures, Saison Capital, and GMO VenturePartners, among other high profile global fintech investors. Existing investors AC Ventures, Y Combinator, Genesia Ventures, Two Culture Capital and prominent angels…

Bank Jago, a Gojek-backed Indonesian bank,  has selected Mambu’s SaaS banking platform as its technology foundation as the bank begins its journey towards operating as a technology based-bank. Mambu’s innovative, flexible and responsive digital banking platform will underpin Bank Jago’s service offerings, which will initially include everyday transactions and payments, with plans to branch out into SME lending. Bank Jago said in a statement that it is the first organisation to benefit from the recently announced strategic partnership between Mambu and Google Cloud, which allows banks and financial institutions in countries like Indonesia, where banking data must remain ‘in country’,…

PT. Bank Rakyat Indonesia Agroniaga (BRI Agro) has inked a deal with local agent-based fintech company Payfazz. Using the API (application programming interface) of its signature digital lending app Pinang, BRI Agro’s digital savings and lending solutions will be channeled to 250,000-plus Payfazz agents as end-users. In turn, agents will also be able to relay the same offerings to their collective 10 million monthly active customers across rural Indonesia. The deal will instantly see BRI Agro’s digital savings accounts become more ubiquitous to underserved Indonesians in rural areas. Payfazz agents will be able to offer Pinang’s low-interest rates to customers…

BukuKas, a startup creating digital solutions for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia, announced it has raised US$ 50 million in Series B funding. The highly oversubscribed Series B round included participation from prominent angels Gokul Rajaram and Taavet Hinrikus, Co-Founder of Wise (formerly known as TransferWise) The fresh funds will be deployed to strengthen BukuKas’ leadership team, engineering and product capabilities in both its Jakarta and Bangalore offices, as well as expand the range of services offered to merchants. This is in line with the company’s vision to provide an end-to-end software stack to small businesses in…

Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Bank BRI) announced that its subsidiary PT. Bank Rakyat Indonesia Agroniaga (BRI Agro) has appointed Kaspar Situmorang as its new CEO. Situmorang’s digital banking acumen will be key at BRI Agro, where the new CEO has been tasked to build the ‘BUKU II’ bank into a fully digital bank. BRI Agro launched the Pinang app in February 2019 offering digital loans with two-minute loan approvals. At the end of 2020, Pinang loan disbursements totaled IDR70.6 billion (US$4.87 million) across 18,069 borrowers. Pinang is already licensed as a digital bank by the Indonesian Financial Services Authority so BRI…

Amartha, a P2P lending platform in Indonesia, received new funding worth US$ 28 million (IDR 405 billion) led by Women’s World Banking Capital Partners II (WWB) and MDI Ventures. WWB Capital Partners II is the second gender lens investment fund founded by Women’s World Banking, a global non-profit organisation that has been working with women’s financial inclusion for the past 40 years. This investment seeks to close the gender gap in financial inclusion by investing in top performing financial service providers to serve low-income segments of women, expanding gender diversity in their staff and management teams, and leveraging innovative solutions…

Bibit.id, a digital investment app in Indonesia, has announced that it has raised US$ 65 million in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital India. The round was joined by Prosus Ventures, Tencent and Harvard Management Company while existing investors including AC Ventures and East Ventures also participated. Bibit said that the funds raised will be used for the launch of new products, tech development, acquire talents, and invest heavily to increase financial education and awareness to further build its platform. Launched in early 2019, Bibit is a mutual fund robo-advisory that enables investors to build portfolios according to their…

Brankas, an Indonesian open banking provider, announced a strategic partnership with payments firm 2C2P to introduce their modern open banking solution to Indonesia. Through Brankas’ API integration, customers of 2C2P’s merchants will be directly connected to major Indonesian banks including Bank Central Asia (BCA), Bank Mandiri, Bank Negara Indonesia and Bank Rakyat Indonesia. Built on the principles of open banking, the partnership allows Indonesian businesses to offer customers a direct debit option during the checkout process to make payments from their personal banking accounts with the afore-mentioned banks immediately. Since the payment is authenticated directly between the consumer and the…

Indonesian e-wallet unicorn OVO has expanded its partnership with Prudential Indonesia to launch a digital shariah life insurance product with affordable premiums. The Asuransi Jiwa Kumpulan Syariah PRUTect Care product is provided by Prudential Indonesia through insurance broker PT Salvus Inti and can be accessed through OVO’s app. It is designed to offer users a highly affordable, highly accessible, shariah-compliant life insurance product. This arrangement gives Prudential Indonesia access to OVO’s large user base nationwide, spanning all of Indonesia’s 34 provinces. Users have a choice of monthly or yearly contribution payment schemes, starting from around IDR 5,000 (US$0.34) per month.…

Celent, a global research and advisory firm for the financial services industry, announced Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Bank BRI) as the winner of the Celent Model Bank 2021 Award for Financial Inclusion. The award recognizes several initiatives from Bank BRI that have digitised the end-to-end processes of microloans, which together are significantly improving financial inclusion in one of the world’s most populous countries. Bank BRI said that it aims for its mobile app to become the country’s next super app, a moniker previously only held by names like Grab and Gojek. Additionally, the award also recognizes Bank BRI for its active…

Validus’ Indonesian subsidary Batumbu has received regulatory approval to operate as a licensed digital financing platform from the Indonesian Financial Services Authority (OJK). Since the launch of its operations in 2019, Batumbu said that it has disbursed over S$207 million to MSMEs and recorded close to 650% annual growth last year. Validus has received regulatory approval in three markets across Southeast Asia to date. The fintech is also licensed in Singapore as Validus Capital and in Thailand as Siam Validus. Since its launch in 2015, Validus has facilitated over S$775 million in SME financing across Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia and most…

Indonesian e-wallet LinkAja has selected Indian software company PureSoftware’s Arttha Digital Payments suite to power its core systems. The move is said to be in line with LinkAja’s aim to expand and strengthen its position as a payment services provider in the region. The partnership will enable LinkAja to enhance the performance of its backend, improve its digital growth strategy, and accelerate financial inclusion across the country. LinkAja will benefit from Arttha’s cloud-based platform as a service solution for its core functionalities, including account management, merchant management, transaction management, and real-time General Ledger (GL) among others. Arttha’s digital payments enable…

South East Asian online travel startup Traveloka announced plans to launch buy now, pay later services in Thailand and Vietnam to its 40 million active monthly users. Traveloka’s president said in an interview to Reuters that the startup had recently partnered with a Thailand bank in a joint venture to further collaborate in the fintech space. It has also been in talks with several unnamed partners in Vietnam in a bid to enter these markets. Having launched its financial services in Indonesia, Traveloka said that it has facilitated more than 6 million loans, launched “Paylater” credit cards with several local lenders…

Indonesia is considered the crown jewel for many fintechs looking to expand to the ASEAN market. Over the past 15 years, Indonesia has made remarkable progress in reducing poverty which is now below 10%, according to the World Bank. During this period, the country has also witnessed its middle class grow from 7% to 20% of the population, with 52 million Indonesians currently belonging to this group. Despite headwinds triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, Indonesia’s internet economy reached US$44 billion in 2020, up 11% from the previous year. It’s projected to grow 23% over the next five years to reach…

Indonesia is considered by many who are expanding in South East Asia as the crown jewel of the region. Being a populous and digitally connected nation that is backed with strong economic fundamentals it has all the right ingredients to thrive. We speak to Jason Thomson CEO of Indonesia’s fintech darling OVO to get an inside look at the scene and opportunities in Indonesia. Hosted by: Vincent Fong, Chief Editor, Fintech News Malaysia

Indonesian e-wallet unicorn OVO has tied up with Manulife Aset Manajemen Indonesia (MAMI) and its strategic partner Bareksa to roll out an instant redemption mutual fund. OVO claims that this offering is the first of its kind in Indonesia. The money market mutual fund product is offered in the OVO mobile app under its OVO Invest feature from IDR 10,000 (USD 0.70) onwards. OVO said that the product also offers instant redemption. With this offering, OVO aims to revolutionise the micro-investment landscape in Indonesia and make investing both attractive and accessible to beginner investors. In 2019, only 1.7% of the…

Fintech continued to lead Indonesia’s startup funding landscape in 2020, making up for most of the money raised that year, ahead of software-as-a-service (SaaS) and e-commerce. 2020 marked the fourth year where fintech dominated the amount of funding in the Indonesian digital ecosystem, according to a report by market research company DSResearch, in partnership with banking institution CIMB Niaga. The annual Fintech Report, released on December 22, 2020, sheds light on the state of fintech in Indonesia and outlines the key trends that emerged in 2020. According to the report, fintech companies raised US$360 million in disclosed funding in 2020,…