CCO Amartha Hadi Wenas Announces Four New Business Development Initiatives

P2P Lending startup Amartha has announced that it will soon receive new funding. Lastly, Amartha has bagged series A pendanaan funding worth $2 million or around IDR26 billion from Mandiri Capital Indonesia (MCI) in 2017.

"Currently, we can't say what the series is. However, we will announce it in the near future," said Chief Commercial Officer Amartha Hadi Wenas when met at the Luncheon Amartha Editor event, Wednesday (23/10).

The man who is familiarly called Wenas said that this new funding will be used to encourage business growth in 2020, including Amartha's expansion plan to several regions in Indonesia.

Currently, Amartha has disbursed loans to 311 thousand micro and small business owners in Indonesia Java Island. The total disbursement of funds to date is recorded at Rp1,47 trillion with an NPL of around 0,83 percent.

Since September 30, said Wenas, Amartha has started distributing loans to South Sulawesi. Then, this expansion will be continued gradually to Sumatra in November.

"In addition to new funding, we will also announce cooperation with several regional and national banks for lending in early 2020," added Wenas.

Amartha .'s four new initiatives

After experiencing multiple times of growth in the last few years, Amartha seeks to create a number of new initiatives for further business development.

There are four strategies that are being prepared by Amartha. Wenas said the four strategies are currently still in the development stage and are planned to be available in the near future.

First, Amartha will prepare features that will help borrowers to optimize their investment. In this case, Amartha will collaborate with third parties, such as asset Management, to help manage funds more quickly.

"So far, a number of investors have had to wait for their investments to be taken. Instead of having the money idle, it is better to put it in mutual funds first. We are working with asset management, so there is no problem with OJK because it does not manage directly," he said.

Second, Amartha will prepare an application for borrowers (borrowers) to manage their expenses. Wenas believes that this service will help improve the welfare of micro business owners, not just the businesses they manage.

"Example use caseThe thing is, they can buy daily necessities in bulk through this application, making it cheaper. This purchase will be driven by some kind of Chairman of the Assembly. Of course we will talk to principals and retailers to provide goods as needed in rural areas," he explained.

Third, Amartha will present an automatic donation feature that is intended to improve the living standards of rural communities. According to Wenas, this feature is not like a donation platform on the market because it is based on the needs of the borrower's area/village.

This donation will be converted directly in the form of a program or scholarship. For example, sanitation and clean water programs. This donation will come in the form of procurement of public toilets.

Finally, this startup that started as a cooperative developed a number of application features to make it easier for Amartha officers in the field to carry out activities with the Amartha Assembly, such as image recognition and fingerprint.