P2P Lending Crowdo Platform Officially Launches in Indonesia

Singapore-based startup providing peer-to-peer (P2P) lending services, Crowdo, last Saturday (9/3) announced that it was available for public access in Indonesia. This is Crowdo's follow-up after July 2015 ago enter the Indonesian market and conduct trials for certain groups only (private beta). In Indonesia, Crowdo is registered under the name PT Mediator Komunitas Indonesia.

Last July, Crowdo's P2P lending service officially expanded its operational area to Indonesia, following up on the previous expansion to Malaysia. The target is to provide working capital loans to businesses in Indonesia that have not been served by the traditional financial system (bank loans).

For the record, according to the International Finance Corporation which is part of the world bank group, in Indonesia there are more than 20 million SMEs with limited access to funding with an estimated credit gap of $27 billion. This potential is what Crowdo is trying to maximize in Indonesia, which is a developing country.

“One of the challenges for small and medium enterprises in Indonesia is in terms of capital. So far, the source of funds for SMEs is still from banks, but banks themselves find it difficult to enter SMEs because banks tend to avoid risk,” said Crowdo Indonesia Senior Advisor Ari Wibowo.

Crowdo Co-Founder and CEO Leo Shimada said, “Our mission is to connect 'high end' startups and small and medium businesses with global investors. […] Indonesia is an important market for our P2P. […] We are here for the long term.”

Leo is also optimistic that the choice of P2P lending services can be a promising alternative in helping early-stage businesses grow. Business owners will be assisted in obtaining funds and investors will be able to transparently access the flow of disbursed funds as well as new opportunities to invest.

Investors who use Crowdo's services, be it angel or venture capital, can disburse a minimum investment of IDR 500 thousand. Meanwhile, business owners can obtain loans of up to one billion rupiah. Crowdo will conduct a due diligence of the loan application before it is forwarded to investors.

If the borrower does not pay two installments in a row, the loan will be said to be in default. If there is collateral, the collateral will be liquidated to repay investors. However, if the loan has no collateral then Crowdo will communicate with the borrower to look for other options.

For information, until now OJK still does not have regulations that can regulate P2P lending services. Even so, Leo assured that his party had consulted with the regulator and ensured that it had complied with all applicable requirements.

With the opening of public access, Crowdo will now focus on looking at user behavior in Indonesia first for at least the next six months. From there, it is possible to launch a mobile application to make it easier for users. In addition, the focus on immediately growing the operational team in Indonesia is also Leo's current concern.