Cicil raises Series A funding to provide financial aid to Indonesian students

By Digital News Asia August 16, 2018

Round was led by East Ventures and Vertex Ventures
Has a presence across 10 provinces and 29 cities in Indonesia to date

Cicil raises Series A funding to provide financial aid to Indonesian students

CICIL, an instalment financing platform for Indonesian university students, announced on Aug 15 that it has secured a Series A funding led by East Ventures and Vertex Ventures.

New investors K3 Ventures and Ethos Partners, as well as existing investor Accord Ventures also participated in the round.

The investment brings Cicil’s total funds raised to over US$5 million.

Cicil provides financial help to students who need to pay for their tuition fees or other items such as laptops which they need for school.

Since its inception in late 2016, the startup has expanded across 10 provinces and 29 cities in Indonesia and serves students from more than 100 universities.

Cicil co-founder Leslie Lim, commented, “We’ve seen that access to finance is a real pain point for Indonesian university students and we hope that Cicil helps solve that problem. Eventually, we hope to address this issue not just in Indonesia, but across the whole of Southeast Asia. The new funds will allow us to accelerate our expansion and service even more students.”

“We really want to have a positive impact on these students’ lives and allow them to have the best education experience as possible. In addition, we also have our ambassador programme which provides soft skills training and allows them be more ready for the working world.” Said Cicil’s other co-founder Edward Widjonarko.

According to data, more than half of Indonesia’s population does not own a formal bank account. However, about 70% of this ‘unbanked’ population owns mobile phones, which allows fintech players like Cicil to thrive.

Willson Cuaca, managing partner of East Ventures says, “Cicil is not just another lending company. Leslie and Edward are solving one of the most critical Indonesia issue which is human capacity development. Access to education can lift up and improve living standard, however education system is costly in Indonesia.

“Cicil fills the gap by giving financing to student for their tuition and education tools such as laptop and computer. It helps the student progress forward and align with national movement to become Energy of Asia.”

Joo Hock Chua, managing partner of Vertex Ventures said, “We are happy to co-lead this round of investment in Cicil to enable its expansion, through its unique and proven funding platform, in this large and under-served university student market segment in Indonesia, Cicil fulfils an important and lasting mission in these student’s education journey by helping to finance their needs: from laptops, travel, housing, tuition so that they have the proper tools and opportunities to focus on a greater learning experience.

“We see huge opportunities beyond Indonesia, which is to help the students in the Asean region as well.”