JULO Announces Series B Funding of 1,1 Trillion Rupiah from Credit Saison [UPDATED]

Startups JULO confirmed the acquisition of Series B funding of $80 million from Credit Saison with a combined $30 million equity and $50 million credit facility. This confirmed figure is higher than the information obtained DailySocial.id previously $35,3 million on February 7, 2022.

In an official statement delivered by the company today (13/4), JULO will use this equity funding to develop a data analysis system, product development, marketing, and customer acquisition plans by adding Human Resources (HR) in the team. developers, data scientist and Business intelligence. Meanwhile, a $50 million credit facility will be allocated to facilitate loan funds to platform JULO.

Senior Managing Executive Officer and Head of Global Business Credit Saison Co., Ltd. Kosuke Mori said that the funding from Credit Saison to JULO is part of the company's ongoing efforts to strengthen financial technology services, which are experiencing significant growth outside of Japan. With support in the form of capital provision and strategic operations, this investment marks Credit Saison's expansion step into the potential and rapidly growing Indonesian fintech market.

As an investor, Credit Saison will play an active role - especially in the hyper growth JULO - by conducting joint observations for any potential business development in the future. The following investment strategy was developed by Credit Saison through Saison Capital, a startup-focused venture capital firm with opportunities to develop financial capabilities.

“To improve financial well-being, credit innovation needs to be accompanied by an in-depth understanding of consumer behavior and needs. As a result, JULO continues to grow in the midst of the COVID pandemic situation with credit disbursement of more than US$ 300 million to date. We look forward to working with JULO to further accelerate access to financial products and to bring about significant changes for economic development in Southeast Asia," said Mori.

JULO last announced officially series A pendanaan funding in September 2019 for $10 million. The round was led by Quona Capital, with participation from other investors, such as Skystar Capital, East Ventures, Provident Capital, Gobi Partners, and Convergence Ventures (formerly not merged into AC Ventures).

Product focus fintech JULO

Currently Julo is expanding the business lendingthrough the product JULO Digital Credit in order to expand the loan ceiling functionality for various types of transactions. Previously, the ceiling could only be used for cash loans transferred by JULO to the borrower's account.

JULO Co-founder & CEO Adrianus Hitijahubessy said, the transformation of this product was motivated by the needs of the people who are now completely digital when conducting daily transactions. Although JULO still focuses on productive loans, according to company data, 3/4 borrowers use their credit limit for non-consumptive purposes.

“But activities that improve their standard of living, such as small business capital, paying school fees, renovating houses. There is also a consumptive, but we don't mind it. For us after going through underwriting strict rules, they pass credit worthiness, so they are given the freedom [to use the limit] whatever their needs,” he explained.

In contrast to conventional credit facilities, JULO provides a credit limit facility that can be accessed at any time after passing one independent application via a smartphone. Continuous credit scoring is carried out by implementing machine learning during the credit cycle and risk management based on more than 5.000 data variables for identity checking, affordability checking, creditworthiness, and detection fraud.

It is claimed that currently more than 500.000 Indonesians have used the JULO digital credit facility every day to withdraw funds, send funds, top up credit, pay electricity bills, top up digital wallets, and pay e-commerce. In presenting the transfer feature to e-wallet and QRIS, JULO in collaboration with partners.

JULO Digital Credit offers a digital credit limit of up to Rp. 15 million with a tenor of up to nine months and an interest of 0,1% per day. As for the payment, it can be done using the monthly installment method, thus easing the burden on users' expenses.

In fact, the expansion of the functional JULO credit limit has also been carried out by other lending players, among others Akulaku and Kredivo which offers a variety of digital transactions in its application.

This new product also removes JULO's old products, namely JULO Cicil and JULO Mini. Adrianus said the two products have become part of the JULO digital credit because they have the same function. "In fact, we have expanded its features because basically the spirit is the same, in the past we could repay the bill for up to six months, now it has been extended to nine months."

Based on company statistics, since it was first established JULO has disbursed loans amounting to Rp2,44 trillion with Rp401 billion in total outstanding loans. Meanwhile, the total borrowers are 337 people. In 2021 alone, the company disbursed Rp1,06 trillion.

In 2021, the number of credit disbursements has more than tripled compared to the previous year. JULO targets growth loan book more than 5 times for the next one year period.

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*) We added official description from JULO