Parent of Education Financing Startup, Dana Cita, Gets Series A Funding Worth 70,5 Billion Rupiah

ErudiFi, parent company special education Charity Fund (Indonesia) and Bukas (Philippines), today (23/2) announced the acquisition of series A funding of $5 million or equivalent to 70,5 billion Rupiah. This round was led by Monk's Hill Ventures and Qualgro.

The fresh funds will be focused on strengthening business and recruitment aspects across various lines, including product and development, data, marketing and operations, and business development. The company will also increase the scope of education loan services in its market area, one of which is by partnering with more educational institutions and investing in developing new products.

Startups affiliated in Y Combinator accelerator program (W18) had recorded initial funding from a number of investors, including Monk's Hill Ventures, Intudo Ventures, Y Combinator, Convergence Ventures, Patamar Capital, and several others. They debuted in 2017 in Indonesia, only starting to explore the Philippines market in April 2019.

Previously, Dana Cita was also a company fintech strategically coupled with Gojek to support financing in its ecosystem together with Findaya (supporter of Gopay Paylater) and Aktivaku.

"Today, nearly two-thirds of young people in Indonesia and the Philippines are unable to enroll in higher education due to a lack of affordable financing. We are excited to continue our goal of expanding access to quality education in the region and helping build a better tomorrow." ErudiFi Co-Founder & CEO Naga Tan.

From the data summarized in Edtech Report 2020In Indonesia, there are several financing startups for education. Apart from Dana Cita, there are DANAdidik, Pintek, KoinWorks, and EiduPay. Pintek itself has just announced early 2021 acquisition debt funding worth $21 million or equivalent to 298 billion Rupiah from Accial Capital.

The business concept promoted by Dana Cita is: “Study Now, Pay Later”, allows students or parents to apply for a study financing loan at a formal institution. The platform will pay the loan funds directly to the relevant institutions. The loan tenor ranges from 6 to 24 months with platform fees ranging from 0 to 1,75% plus an approval fee of 3% of the total funds. Currently, Dana Cita has collaborated with 13 universities and 18 course institutions.

"Access to affordable higher education remains a major problem in Southeast Asia where the cost is almost double the average GDP per capita. ErudiFi tackles an underserved market, due to high interest rates from traditional financial institutions and limited reach of companies p2p loans [more general]," said Co-Founder & Managing Partner Monk's Hill Ventures Peng T. Ong.

For partner institutions, ErudiFi also provides products that allow them to track disbursement, as well as providing an analytics platform for recruitment and retention. According to the data presented, in Southeast Asia the dropout rate reaches 10-15% annually, the main factor being financial difficulties.