Fintech or financial technology refers to technology innovation and automation in financial sector aiming to make the industry more inclusive and the process more efficient. It is one of the most attractive categories considered by venture capital (VC) and investors, given Indonesia and South East Asia’s huge population that has not accessed finance yet.
Fintech startups can be grouped into several categories: payments, financing, insurance, investments, and infrastructure.
As for East Ventures, we have invested in this sector since 2014. Fast forward three years since then, we have exited three companies by 2018.
Kudo is Indonesia’s leading Online-to-Offline (O2O) platform. It enables digital entrepreneurs (“agents”) across Indonesia to become the gateway for unbanked & less tech-savvy customers to the digital ecosystem. Its extensive agent network across 500+ cities in remote towns and rural areas of Indonesia enables customers to transact & pay online for the first time in their lives. It offers a wealth of services through a partnership with various merchants & suppliers, ranging from cell-phone top-up, bill payments, online shopping, all the way to fin-tech & digital payment services.
Kudo was co-founded by Albert Lucius & Agung Nugroho in 2014. Since May 2017, Kudo has officially been acquired by Grab, Southeast Asia’s leading ride-hailing platform. Together with Grab, Kudo is committed to enabling underserved customers to transact online through technology in Southeast Asia.
Moka is a technology company based in Jakarta (Indonesia) providing cloud-based Point-of-Sale (POS) and payment solutions that empower small and medium-sized businesses to better sell and grow.
Founded in 2014, the company is currently present across 100+ cities in Indonesia with over 15,000 merchants and has received more than $30 million in funding from world-class investors such as Sequoia Capital, SoftBank, and East Ventures.
Moka is one of the startups that receive investment from East Ventures through a phone call, a living proof that a good deal could and should be executed fast.
Xendit is a fintech company that provides payment infrastructure across Indonesia. It process payments, runs marketplaces, disburses payroll and loans, detects fraud and helps other businesses grow exponentially. It serve these companies by providing a suite of world-class APIs and a dashboard UI that simplifies processes.
Xendit process millions of transactions monthly, growing 25% month on month for the last two years. It serves local SMEs to some of Indonesia’s largest tech startups and also giant-sized businesses like Samsung. It is trusted and backed by some of the largest VCs in the world like East Ventures and are alumni of the prestigious accelerator Y Combinator (S15).
Cermati was founded by ex-silicon valley engineers with a vision to utilize technology to make financial information more available and useful to everyone. The Jakarta-based company is on a mission to enable people to take control of their financial situation and save a lot of money by doing so.
PasarPolis is the first e-commerce in Indonesia that provide information, comparison, and application for various insurance products in Indonesia. The portal is made to help people who want to compare insurance products in a fast, easy, and safe way.
They provide a new experience of “One Stop Insurance Shopping” with the complete list of insurance products. You can get your insurance without any agents, with a much cheaper premium.
Jurnal is a tech company delivering web-based accounting solution for small to medium businesses in Indonesia. It simplify administrative processes to only the essentials. It gives users the convenience of operating their business at any place and time, on any device. Jurnal equips businesses with the right tools to be a professional business.
Sleekr is #1 HR & Accounting software, from Indonesia and for Indonesia. They are helping modern businesses manage their HR and Accounting. The Jakarta-based company is a powerful operating system for companies looking to be effective and efficient. Their mission is to create a more effective working environment for both employees and management through technology.
Read Also: Indonesia’s Fintech Scene: What You Need to Know
Founded by Leslie Lim and Edward Widjonarko in 2016, Cicil addresses the credit needs of university students in Indonesia.
The two founders understand that access to education can lift and improve living standard. However, the education system is costly in Indonesia. The presence of Cicil fills the gap by giving financing to students for their tuition and education tools such as laptops and computers. It helps the student progress forward and solving one of the most critical Indonesia issues which are human capacity development.
Since its inception in late 2016, the startup has expanded across ten provinces and 29 cities in Indonesia and serves students from more than 100 universities.
Launched in 2015, the cloud-based mobile financial application Jojonomic aims to provide solutions for the enterprise by cutting the long-painful company’s administrative works and have them to focus on what matters, to do their business. The company is a SaaS (Software as a Service) B2B (Business to Business) Fintech (Financial Technology) company, serving prominent enterprises throughout the region.
JULO is a digital lending company that is revolutionizing access to financial products for millions of emerging consumers in Indonesia. They have developed the first digital data-driven credit underwriting and risk assessment platform to process consumer loan applications and determine their creditworthiness through their mobile app.
Established in Singapore, Helicap is a fintech investment company that aims to fill the credit gaps faced by consumers and corporates who have been conventionally underserved by traditional financial institutions. Via a curated list of 300 licensed platform partners from traditional microfinance institutions to digital lenders, the company helps facilitate lending capital to 400 million borrowers across Southeast Asia and Australia.
Helicap has access to credit data accumulated by hundreds of originators – allowing it a helicopter view of the industry and to generate superior insights in light of its capital allocation. Since 2017, it has identified hundreds of platform, screened over 50, and invested alongside more than ten lending platforms. Helicap currently screens and accesses data to more than US$200 million loans.
Omise, provide their users with the necessary tools to run an online business, accept payments and connect them with millions of potential customers. Its payment solution is simple to set up and works seamlessly across multiple devices. It take cares of connecting and maintaining relationships with processors and acquirers which let their users focus on building great products.
MoolahSense is Singapore’s first digital lending platform. It aim to connect established businesses seeking loans for capital expansion, equipment purchases or other needs to the broad investor community. It is motivated in addressing the gaps in access for funding and investing for small businesses and everyday investors, and want to contribute towards fostering a culture of entrepreneurship and promote a more inclusive financial system.
(Also read this article in Bahasa Indonesia.)
East Venture
