KakaoBank will acquire 10% of Superbank shares

South Korean digital bank KakaoBank will acquire 10% of PT Super Bank Indonesia (Superbank) shares through the issuance of new shares. This strategic action will also complement the Superbank partnership after being "invested" by Grab, Singtel, and Emtek Group in early 2023.

In its official statement, this corporate action includes active collaboration in developing Superbank products and services. Meanwhile, the Superbank application is targeted to be launched this year.

Superbank will leverage KakaoBank's proven capabilities and experience and rank first in the number of monthly active users among leading banking apps in South Korea. Meanwhile, KakaoBank will deepen its understanding of customers and encourage the progress of the digital financial industry in the Southeast Asian market.

"Strategic investment and collaboration with Superbank is the first step in KakaoBank's global business. We will create the future of finance with leading partners in Southeast Asia to build a digital financial technology platform starting in Indonesia with Superbank," said KakaoBank Corp CEO Ho Young Yun.

This strategic partnership is also an effort by KakaoBank to strengthen its position globally. Yun added that he would commit to the long term through synergy with the business ecosystem Grab in South East Asia.

Superbank President Director Tigor M. Siahaan further said, "this partnership combines international expertise with great potential in Indonesia. With the same commitment to financial inclusion and technology-based progress, this partnership not only strengthens Superbank's capabilities, but also brings us closer to Our mission is to serve the community underbanked, especially MSMEs and retail."

For your information, Superbank (formerly known as Bank Fama) was acquired by a consortium Grab, Singtel, and Emtek Group. Superbank has partnered with Amartha and Genesis Alternative Ventures (Genesis) for cooperation in distributing financing, namely MSMEs and the startup industry.

Well Grab, Singtel, and Emtek have extensive market penetration across multiple sectors, including multi-platform media audiences and sellers online all-commerce as well as millions of platform users Grab. Meanwhile, Singtel serves millions of mobile and enterprise customers. With this ecosystem, Superbank is believed to be in the best position to connect with MSME and retail customers in Indonesia.

While, KakaoBank is one of the most successful digital banks in the world. At the start of its launch, the number of KakaoBank users reached 300 thousand within 24 hours. In two weeks, KakaoBank reached 2 million users, total savings of ₩1 trillion ($930 million) and loans of ₩770 billion ($701 million).

This success occurred thanks to Kakao's efforts to utilize the characteristics of the Kakao Talk application - which is also popular in South Korean society - supported by mobile services/products and on-demand, enabling Kakao to transform customer-centric banking services.

In Indonesia, acquisitions of digital banks by technology companies have occurred over the last few years. One of the strategic acquisitions was carried out by Gojek (before IPO) against Bank Jago. Now Bank Jago can take advantage of the GoTo service ecosystem. Apart from that, Bank Jago also collaborates with Bibit which makes investing easier through the application.