Observe Book Series C Funding Led by MDI Ventures; Now a Holding Company

Financial product aggregator startup Cermati announced the acquisition of series C funding with an undisclosed value led by MDI Ventures, through Centauri Fund. This round was also followed by previous investors, namely Djarum Group through Central Capital Venture (CCV) which led the round series B in 2018.

It is stated that the fresh funds will be used to develop products and technology, recruit new talents, and add new services with strategies embedded fintech. Together with MDI Ventures, CFG will synergize with the Telkom Group network to develop financial products.

In an official statement delivered today (5/5), CEO MDI Ventures Donald Wihardja expressed his enthusiasm for the synergy between Cermati and Telkom in developing products that can provide financial access to 150 million telecommunication network users and hundreds of users fintech throughout the Telkom network. “This has the potential to play an important role in accelerating Indonesia's financial inclusion,” said Donald.

On this occasion, we also introduce Cermati as a company holding named Cermati Fintech Group (CFG) which oversees a number of business verticals, namely Cermati.com (financial product aggregator), Cermati Protect (insurtech), and Indodana ( ). CFG makes use of big data and AI technology to serve underserved Indonesians by developing microfinance and insurance products.

Separately, when contacted DailySocial, Co-Founder & CEO Cermati Andhy Koesnandar explained, CFG is a company vehicle to accelerate financial inclusion in Indonesia. He believes in using technology and working with businesses large ecosystem, can reach more people underbanked get acquainted with financial products that were previously untouched by banking and insurance institutions.

“Since 2018 we have started to develop our business microinsurance and microfinance to be able to reach the Indonesian people more broadly," he said.

Product flagship Cermati is an aggregator of financial products that has been running since 2015. Andhy said the product succeeded in enriching Cermati's experience in developing digital onboarding products for banking partners, insurance and other financial institutions, through API components, Fraud Detection, Credit Scoring, and e-KYC that become the standard in banking. "This experience provides capital for us to continue to develop new business lines at CFG."

As for during the pandemic, although not specifically detailed, Cermati captured the public's enthusiasm for digital financial services during the pandemic as many people migrated to digital services for all their activities, including for their financial needs.

As for insurtech Cermati Protect has now collaborated with more than 30 insurance company partners. The insurance products are also diverse, ranging from health insurance, vehicles and also micro insurance products distributed through major e-commerce players such as Shopee, Bukalapak, Blibli, Tiket and so on.

"Especially for this micro product, we work closely with our partners to build products that are suitable for the context of transactions with low prices starting from Rp. benefits of insurance at a very affordable price.”

While, indodan already distributed BNPL products (Buy Now Pay Later) to various players e-commerce. One of them is through Djarum Group, namely Tiket.com and Blibli. Indodana is more focused on targeting consumers who do not have credit card access. Both Cermati Protect and Indodana have been registered and licensed by the OJK.