UangTeman raises US$12mil oversubscribed Series A round

By Digital News Asia August 8, 2017

This round is led by K2 Venture Capital Ltd and Loxbit pcl
Draper Associates participated as its first major investment in the Indonesian startup scene

UangTeman raises US$12mil oversubscribed Series A round

[Ed note: Darmawan was earlier mistakenly identified as Deputy CEO, Rio Quiserto. The error is regretted.]

UANGTEMAN has announced that they have raised up to US$12 million (RM51.4 million) in its oversubscribed Series A round from new and existing investors. This round is led by K2 Venture Capital Ltd, a joint venture between SGX-listed TIH Limited and Loxbit pcl, a subsidiary of Thai-listed conglomerate Loxley pcl.

As part of this financing round, STI Financial Group, a Hong Kong-based asset management company, is providing an undisclosed amount of debt financing to UangTeman for purposes of supporting its lending capital requirements in Indonesia.

“We are very excited by the support that we have gotten from both local and international investors like K2 Venture Capital 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,” says CEO and founder Aidil Zulkifli.

Draper Associates, the VC fund of Silicon Valley investor Tim Draper, participated in this round as its first major investment into Indonesia startup scene. Existing investors such as Alpha JWC Ventures and Teong Chee Hooi participated in this round.

“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,” says Draper Associates founder & managing partner Tim Draper.

UangTeman was launched in April 2015 as Indonesia’s first digital lender providing short term unsecured micro loans to Indonesian consumers of no more than US$350 and limited to a 30-day tenure.

UangTeman claims growth of more than 300% in 2016 since its inception with a write-off ratio of less than 2%.

Since its launch in Jakarta in 2015, UangTeman is now the only fintech lender in Indonesia providing safe and transparent loans to underbanked Indonesians in more than 14 cities throughout Indonesia such as Bali, Bandung, Jambi and Surabaya.

The round comes at an opportune time for UangTeman, which 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 and 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.

K2 Venture Capital Ltd managing director Stanley Wang will be joining the board of the parent company, Digital Alpha Group Pte Ltd, as part of this investment deal.

“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.”

“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,” says STI Financial Group partner Cyrus Wen.