Halofina aims to raise financial literacy in Indonesia

• Robo financial advisor connects users to financial products providers
• Will be officially launched by the end of the year with completed features

HALOFINA, a personal financial planner assistant application provider helps users to manage their personal finances and develop investment strategies according to their financial abilities.

Halofina co-founder and chief executive officer Adjie Wicaksana says that in 2017, he realised the low rate of financial inclusion in Indonesia.

“Financial literacy is able to help financial inclusion grow, as people will understand the use of financial products and this will create a positive correlation in helping to increase the country’s social economic status.”

In mid 2017, they launched ‘Finapedia’, an e-learning platform for financial education, with Indonesia’s Smart Financial Movement (GICF). This venture was initiated by Halofina co-founder and advisor Eko Pratomo, who is also a former CEO and senior advisor of one of the largest investment managers in Indonesia.

At the end of 2017, Halofina offered three main services free through its mobile app (available on Android and iOS) namely, smart planning, life plan, and educational features.

Smart planning helps users to manage their financial planning and calculate the amount of money they have to save according to their goals, such as, getting married, purchasing a house or car.

Life plan is a feature that gives users advice and recommendations in terms of money that is currently available.

The platform integrates with fintech players such as peer-to-peer lending providers Amartha and Mekar, gold investment providers Tamasia and Indogold, as well as payroll management platform Gadjian.  Users will be referred to these partners for help in monitoring and managing their investment through a single dashboard.

“They do not have to purchase anything to use our services and its up to users whether or not to use the services; we only provide options.”

The platform utilises in-house Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology in the form of a virtual assistant. The financial ‘theories’ utilised are provided by four of the current financial advisors.

Adjie says that Halofina is only available for 100 premium users (for a month) during its soft launch now and will be officially launched by the end of this year with completed features.

“In the meantime, we are still working on registration with OJK, and we are developing a paid feature where users will get more personalised services by being connected with financial advisors.”

He wants to work closely with financial institutions or players who also have the willingness to educate the community on financial products and services.

“We are independent and we see ourselves as complementary to existing businesses, as a tool for financial products providers to reach more consumers and educate them.”

Halofina takes a percentage (undisclosed) of the referral fee for every successful transaction between users and partners. It now has 15 staff in the team including IT, marketing, and business developers.

The company is bootstrapping and is in talks with several local and foreign investors to raise seed round funding (undisclosed) in the near future. Halofina graduated from the ITB incubator and was selected as one of the startups in Plug and Play accelerator for its third batch.

Adjie also targets 100,000 users in several big cities across Indonesia such as Jakarta, Medan, and Surabaya next year after it’s officially launched.

He says that Halofina will continuously provide education through offline and online campaigns.

“We aim to change the mindset where most people do not see that they need financial planning. Therefore we are here to give them a “wake-up-call” that financial management is important.”

Related Stories:

Financial advice the robo way

OCBC Bank is first SEA bank to launch robo-investment service

Whitman launches advisor-driven wealth management mobile app in Malaysia

Whitman launches free navigation app for financial freedom

For more technology news and the latest updates, follow us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn