Komunal Raised Seed Funding Led by East Ventures

JAKARTA, 3 DECEMBER 2019 —Komunal, an online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending company based in Surabaya, Indonesia, announced earlier today that it has secured an undisclosed amount of seed funding led by East Ventures with participation from Skystar Capital.  The investment will accelerate Komunal’s mission to bridge the funding gap much-needed by the growing population of underbanked Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia.

Komunal conceived their idea when the founders realized the huge credit gap that the country faced in early 2018. Indonesia’s MSMEs’ credit gap reached IDR 1,000 trillion (US$ 70bn) per year despite the massive growth of its banking and microfinance sectors. The gap is even more apparent outside Jabodetabek, the area surrounding the capital province. However, Indonesia has a substantial and growing mobile phone user base, most of whom are already used to e-commerce and ride-hailing apps. This opportunity prompted Hendry Lieviant, Ex-Goldman’s credit analyst, to start Komunal together with Rico Tedyono and Kendrick. Together, they aim to combine best-in-class credit methodology, alternative data & technology, and community partnership with existing regional banks (BPR) and cooperative loan (Koperasi) to improve the funding access to Indonesia’s MSMEs   

Hendry Lieviant, the Co-founder of Komunal, commented, “MSME is the backbone of Indonesia’s economy, contributing to more than 60% of GDP and 95% of employment. Unfortunately, they often had difficulty in obtaining financing to expand their business from the traditional lenders like bank, due to lack of formal credit records and high operational costs to serve. Through Komunal, we are helping potential MSMEs to thrive and substantially improve Indonesia’s economy, as well as reduce inequality.”

“The P2P business model is proven to helps improve the quality of economic growth through better financial inclusion. Komunal not only provides lending opportunities to the public with attractive returns, but also new funding access to underbanked borrowers. Through our platform, MSMEs can now access the capital they need to grow,” said Rico Tedyono, Co-founder of Komunal.

Only in 8 months of operations, Komunal has channeled around IDR 50 billion of loans to good quality MSMEs, mostly East Java area. Kendrick Winoto, Co-founder of Komunal, explained, “our Borrowers and Lenders, as well as our partners, appreciate the local presence, experience, and knowledge brought by our team. This is only the beginning, and we are excited to expand our network to serve more cities in East Java, as well other provinces that are still relatively untouched next year.”

Indonesia Fintech Lending scene itself has seen explosive growth in the past three years. As of June 2019, OJK (Indonesian Financial Service Authority) recorded that the P2P loan transaction reached IDR 45 Trillion on a cumulative basis, up 97.7% from December 2018.

Willson Cuaca, Managing Partner of East Ventures says, “Komunal shares East Ventures’ mission of financial inclusion for the country. The team has proven its unique capability in executing fast yet precise, despite being a newcomer in the field and coming from the second-tier city. We are thrilled to join hands with them in opening more better opportunities for Indonesian MSMEs”

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About Komunal

Komunal is an online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending companies based in Surabaya, Indonesia. It was registered in OJK in Feb 2019 and began operation on March 2019. Komunal aim to bridge the funding gap much-needed by growing population of underbanked Micro Small Medium Enterprise (MSMEs) in Indonesia

Komunal was co-founded by Hendry Lieviant, Rico Tedyono, and Kendrick Winoto. The team has diverse background in Credit Risk, Investment Banking, Operations, and Technology from world’s renowned firms like Goldman Sachs, Barclays, HSBC, Microsoft, General Electric, among others. Together, they look to combine best-in-class credit methodology, alternative data & technology, and community partnership with existing regional banks (BPR) and Koperasi to improve the funding access to Indonesia’s MSMEs.   

About East Ventures

Founded in 2009, East Ventures is an early-stage sector-agnostic venture capital firm. The firm has supported more than 160 companies in the Southeast Asian region that are present across Indonesia, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

An early believer in the startup ecosystem in Indonesia, East Ventures is the first investor of Indonesia’s unicorn companies, namely Tokopedia and Traveloka. Other notable companies in the portfolio include Mercari, Warung Pintar, Fore Coffee, Disdus (acquired by Groupon), Kudo (acquired by Grab), Loket (acquired by Gojek), Tech in Asia, Omise, IDN Media, Ruangguru, MokaPOS, ShopBack, and CoHive.

In 2018, to further support and capitalize on the development of their ecosystem, East Ventures set up a growth-stage fund named EV Growth. The following year, East Ventures was named the most consistent top performing VC fund globally and the most active investor in SEA and Indonesia. https://east.vc/

For more information or interviews, contact: Gladys Nathania (gladys@east.vc)