Mandiri Capital Leads Pre Series A Funding for Crowde

Mandiri Capital Indonesia, a CVC managed by Bank Mandiri, led the Pre Series A funding for agriculture-specific p2p lending startup Crowde, amounting to $1 million (approximately 14 billion Rupiah). At the same time, Bank Mandiri also participates as a Actioncalendar institutions for lending through Crowde worth 100 billion Rupiah.

MCI CEO Eddi Danusaputro explained that the company chose Crowde because it was in line with the needs that Bank Mandiri was looking for and in line with the initial mission of the establishment of MCI. Currently, Bank Mandiri is trying to increase the distribution of productive loans to MSMEs, especially micro.

Crowde is considered a suitable candidate because it is engaged in productive sectors for agriculture, fisheries, and trade. In the near future, MCI will soon announce another funding which he also leads in the field of financial management.

"Usually appetite MCI is for investment in Series A, but this time it's a little different because Crowde has a good capacity to meet the needs of Bank Mandiri," explained Eddi, Thursday (19/9).

Crowde CEO Yohanes Sugihtononugroho explained, MCI is a strategic investor who can directly bring about a symbiotic relationship of mutualism for the future development of Crowde and Bank Mandiri as a group.

Funds obtained from this round will be fully used to develop technology that can be used by farmers in Indonesia. According to him, there are many technologies scattered, but that can be used with the segmentation of Indonesian farmers are not many.

"Our focus will not be far from reaching more farmers, the way is by building technology that can be used by Indonesian farmers. This is what very segmented so so challenging, said John.

The pre-Series A round has not yet been closed according to Yohanes. It is still looking for other strategic investors to enter. Unfortunately, he is not ready to reveal the targeted funds target and when the round will be closed.

Crowde's previous investors were Green Ventures with an undisclosed funding nominal last year.

Credit loans from Bank Mandiri

Bank Mandiri is now a Actioncalendar The first national-scale institution for Crowde with a credit distribution commitment value of Rp. 100 billion. In this collaboration, Crowder will refer potential debtors to participate in the selection process based on the company's prospective debtor criteria and determine the loan for each prospective debtor.

Based on the selection process, Bank Mandiri will process the loan application. The maximum platform that can be accessed by each micro actor is IDR 200 million.

Director of Retail Banking at Bank Mandiri, Donsuwan Simatupang, explained that the scheme between the two companies is very strategic because it can help banks maintain the quality of financing disbursed, and increase the added value that Crowde can provide to these business actors.

"In addition, this cooperation scheme can also speed up the credit approval process so that debtors who are financed can take advantage of the existing momentum in developing their business," said Donsuwan.

The company itself will have wider access to the MSME segment in the agriculture sector so that it can accommodate the needs of farmers and ranchers for access to banking capital.

As of August 2019, Bank Mandiri had distributed productive micro credit financing of Rp23,51 trillion to micro-enterprises in the country. Meanwhile, Crowde has channeled financing of up to Rp90 billion to 17 thousand small and medium-sized farmers located in Java, Sumatra and Eastern Indonesia.