Draper Associates places first major bet in Indonesia fintech, participating in UangTeman $12m Series A equity & debt round
Jakarta, Indonesia (PRWEB) August 18, 2017 -- UangTeman has successfully raised up to US$12 million (in both debt and equity) in its oversubscribed Series A round from new and existing investors. The round is co-led by K2 Venture Capital Ltd, Enspire Capital, and UangTeman’s first institutional investor, Alpha JWC Ventures.
In addition, famed Silicon Valley investor Tim Draper also participated in this round through his VC fund, Draper Associates. The investment will be his first major move into Indonesia’s startup scene.
As part of this financing round, STI Financial Group, a Hong Kong-based asset management company, is also providing an undisclosed amount of debt financing to UangTeman for the purpose of supporting its lending capital requirements in Indonesia.
UangTeman was launched in April 2015 as Indonesia’s first digital lender providing short term unsecured microloans of no more than US$350 to Indonesian consumers at a maximum of 30 days tenor. The Company was founded by Aidil Zulkifli as CEO and Soon Chern Chua as COO. Although Soon Chern Chua has voluntarily departed from the Company since April 2016 due to his other commitment and he remains in good terms with the Company, under Aidil’s leadership, UangTeman has seen fantastic growth. UangTeman’s seven-month 2017 has seen almost 500% in loanbook growth, with write off ratio at less than 2%. From its first launch in Jakarta in 2015, UangTeman is now the only fintech lender in Indonesia that is providing safe and transparent loans to underbanked Indonesians in more than 14 cities throughout Indonesia including Bali, Bandung, Jambi and Surabaya.
The round comes at an opportune time for UangTeman as it has recently obtained its official registration from the financial services regulator of Indonesia (OJK) as a fintech lender under regulation 77/2016. The funds will be used to scale its customer acquisition profitably throughout Indonesia as well as to invest in further research and development. The company is planning to open a Data Science & Analytics Centre in Singapore and India where further research on lending analytics will be conducted.
“We are very excited by the support that we have gotten from our existing investor Alpha JWC Ventures and international investors such as K2 Venture Capital, Enspire VC, and Draper Associates in this competitive fundraising exercise. It is our vision to build out a customer-centric online lending ecosystem where we are singularly focused on creating the best and delightful borrowing experience for under-banked Southeast Asians. We will be investing in further R&D that would enable us to deliver that happiness to our customers.” Aidil Zulkifli, CEO and founder
Stanley Wang, the Managing Director of K2 Venture Capital Ltd, will be joining the Board of the parent company, Digital Alpha Group Pte Ltd, as part of this investment deal joining Jefrey Joe, Managing Partner of Alpha JWC Ventures.
“Indonesia has an enormous unbanked and underbanked population which is now accessible via mobile and on-line channels, and we see UangTeman as one of the most promising new players in this emerging fintech space. They have a dynamic management team committed to building a strong franchise and technology platform, and we believe they can be successful in other markets in the region” Stanley Wang, Managing Director K2 Venture Capital Ltd
“We are proud to be a value added partner to UangTeman in the past two years. From our close working relationship with UangTeman, we clearly see the value that the company provide for the unbankable population across Indonesia. While many people understand the huge potential of the fintech in Indonesia, but UangTeman has managed to execute it really well with a presence in more than 10 cities in Indonesia. We are thrilled to work with UangTeman and the new investors in this round to grow the company to the next level.” Jefrey Joe, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Alpha JWC Ventures
“The large untapped market of micro-loan lending, where most significant players are still offline, makes Indonesia a favourable market for online micro-lenders like UangTeman. As a pioneer in Indonesia’s microlending market, we believe the strong growth of UangTeman is sustainable with the capability to replicate its success story in other markets within ASEAN” Cyrus Wen, Partner, STI Financial Group
“We are very excited about partnering with the outstanding team at UangTeman in Indonesia to serve the large unbanked population. The emerging middle class in Indonesia is under-served by mainstream financial institutions, and UangTeman has a greenfield to build a large sustainable business. I visited Indonesia in June this year, and was impressed by how Fast Indonesia is evolving in fintech, and how important UangTeman will be in Indonesia's financial development.” Tim Draper, Founder & Managing Partner, Draper Associates
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About UangTeman (PT Digital Alpha Indonesia)
UangTeman.com (PT Digital Alpha Indonesia) is Indonesia's first online unsecured microlending service where credit decisions are made real-time and instantly by our proprietary big data driven credit risk algorithms. We provide safe and socially responsible alternative unsecured credit to Indonesians who would otherwise have to put up collateral or subject themselves to the criminal coercion of loansharks.
UangTeman (PT Digital Alpha Indonesia) is officially registered and regulated by OJK under POJK 77/2016 pursuant to Letter of Registration No S2970/NB.111/2017.
About K2 Venture Capital Ltd
K2 Venture Capital is a Bangkok-based early-stage venture investment firm. Currently its sectors of interest include: fintech, employee and workforce management, agri-tech and blockchain. K2 focuses on Southeast Asia, especially Thailand and Indonesia. K2 Venture Capital is a joint investment between SGX-listed TIH Limited and Loxbit pcl, a subsidiary of SET-listed conglomerate Loxley pcl.
About Alpha JWC Ventures
Alpha JWC Ventures is a Southeast Asia venture capital firm with an Indonesia angle and a focused value-add approach. Alpha JWC is an independent and institutional Firm which focus on backing extraordinary founders as a value-add partner, and we have offices in Jakarta and in Singapore.
About STI Financial Group
STI Financial Group is a Hong Kong based investment group that specializes in proprietary trading, special situation, structured credit and private equity investments.
About Draper Associates
Draper Associates, founded in 1985, is a seed-stage venture capital firm that encourages entrepreneurs to drive their businesses to greatness, to transform industries with new technologies, and to build platforms for extraordinary growth, jobs, and wealth creation.
Aidil Zulkifli, UangTeman, http://www.uangteman.com, +65 93200041, [email protected]
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