AwanTunai raises US$4.3mil in Series A funding

• Round was led by Insignia Ventures Partners with AMTD Group as co-lead
• Allows banks and finance companies to reach customers not covered by their networks

INDONESIAN fintech platform AwanTunai, raised US$4.3 million (RM17.93 million) led by Insignia Venture Partners & AMTD Group.

Currently in the Paypal Singapore Incubator Programme since July 2018, AwanTunai announced their Series A round which also included co-investments from Global Brains, Fenox Venture Capital, and other affiliates.

Founded by Dino Setiawan, Windy Natriavi and Rama Notowidigdo, AwanTunai is a point of sale financing solution aimed at digitising Indonesia’s vast cash economy.

AwanTunai builds digital distribution to thousands of micro-retail merchants who can then access working capital as well as accept payment from AwanTunai consumer credit.

The financially inclusive startup also issues mobile-based consumer credit, serving the 100 million Indonesians unable to access banking products.

This way, AwanTunai provides a holistic financing solution for micro-merchants.

Working capital for grocery stores, motorcycle repair garages, electronic retailers, pharmacies, and other micro merchants catering to everyday household needs as well as consumer financing for these merchant’s customers to help increase retail sales.

As a platform, AwanTunai offers Indonesian banks and multi-finance companies the ability to reach customers not covered by their branch networks.

Loan origination costs are low through automated digital processes, which reduce the costs of accessing the previously underserved mass market.

Dino, CEO of AwanTunai said, “We recognise that fintech’s strength is to help existing financial institutions gain wider distribution into underserved markets and lower origination costs. We hope to enable Indonesia’s banks to provide the whole country access to affordable high-quality credit services.”

Yinglan Tan, managing partner at Insignia Ventures Partners, and a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, said “We firmly believe the future of financial services lies with digital banks. Our investment in AwanTunai reflects their ability to be an enabler of incumbent banks to adopt the technologies necessary to deploy digital banking products.

“We are excited about the significant potential of the Asean region. We have made an investment into AwanTunai to gain on the ground insight into Indonesia, the region’s largest market by economy and population and the only region member in G20.

“We look forward to increasing our footprint in Indonesia as well as in the surrounding region and a meaningful partnership with AwanTunai in the areas of digital financial solutions including insurtech and wealthtech,” added AMTD Group chaiman Calvin Choi, who is also a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.

As of October 2018, AwanTunai has served 300,000 loan applications. In the fourth quarter of this year, AwanTunai targets to be able to provide working capital loans to 5,000 micro-merchants.