Akulaku Obtain Strategic Investment of 1,4 Trillion Rupiah from Siam Commercial Bank

Akulaku announced the acquisition of a strategic investment of $100 million or more than Rp1,4 trillion from Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), a leading commercial bank in Thailand. This agreement follows successful funding received Akulaku of $125 million last year led by investors Akulaku formerly the Silverhorn Group, which is also a financing partner (financing partners) since 2018.

subsidiary Akulaku, namely Bank Neo Commerce (BNC), also completed a public offering of public rights on the Indonesia Stock Exchange with a value of around $175 million (more than Rp. 2,5 trillion) in the fourth quarter of 2021. Reportedly, the funding received Akulaku this is the closing of the pre-IPO fundraising through the SPAC channel. According to reports in Deal Street Asia, Akulaku will go public in 2022.

In an official statement, CEO Akulaku William Li said the fresh funds enabled the company to continue its vision of expanding the geographical reach of its products and services throughout Southeast Asia and continue to innovate. "We founded Akulaku to meet the daily financial needs of underserved customers in emerging markets,” said Li, Tuesday (15/2).

President of Siam Commercial Bank Dr. Arak Sutivong said the investment step taken by SCB marked its continued commitment and strong belief in Indonesia's long-term prospects as one of the fastest growing digital economies in the region. he saw Akulaku has a dominant market position and is well positioned with its innovative technology and superior product offerings.

“We are excited about the investment in this company and look forward to leveraging our deep expertise in the Thai financial services sector to support its expansion. Invest in Akulaku fits in our regional thesis to serve underserved markets using digital innovation. We look forward to partnering with Akulaku in line with the company's growth," said Sutivong.

Has disbursed credit to 6 million customers

Founded in 2016, Akulaku has grown into a platform Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) and consumer finance in Indonesia, claims to have disbursed more than $2,2 billion in credit in 2021 to more than 6 million users. Service scope Akulaku not only Indonesia, but also the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia.

Departing from that success, BNC launched a service mobile digital banking in March 2021, and is now the fastest growing digital bank in Indonesia with more than 13 million users today. The company also has another financial subsidiary group engaged in lending, namely Assetku which operates in Indonesia, and a similar BNPL service that is present in Europe called Wisecart.

With over 80% of consumers now participating in E-commerce, Southeast Asia's digital retail market is growing exponentially. Digital credit service Akulaku poised for further accelerated retail digital transformation in Southeast Asia, providing new markets with consumer access to flexible banking services.

Akulaku itself is said to have achieved unicorn status since 2019 with a valuation of more than $ 1,1 billion, according to a report compiled by Credit Suisse entitled "ASEAN Unicorn, Scaling the New Height". The company itself has not conveyed its status to the public until now.

BNPL has accelerated since the pandemic

Special report on ecosystem paylater in Indonesia released DSInnovate who stated, paylater become the second favorite service in 2020 (72,5%) or slightly below the digital wallet platform which has a recognition of 82,2%.

On the other hand, a positive trend E-commerce which is increasingly accelerated by the pandemic has also triggered the high product adaptation paylater in society. Not without reason, research released by ResearchAndMarkets at the end of 2020 yesterday stated, growth predictions Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) which will reach US$8,5 billion in 2028 is expected to help boost the facility paylater by about 76,7% annually.

Even with the latest research released by Kredivo and the Katadata Insight Center entitled “Consumer Behavior of E-Commerce Indonesia 2021”, also shows an increase in users paylater, i.e. there are 55% of new users who use the features paylater Kredivo.

The high use of paylaters also has a positive impact on the supply side, where this feature is able to assist merchants in increasing AoV (average order value), increase sales by offering credit cardless credit, and also increase sales conversions by reducing friction during the shopping process.

While the paylater itself has two classifications, namely: paylater owned by digital startups (E-commerce, OTAs, ride-hailing service, and others) and the second is service paylater owned by startup fintech. In Indonesia, there are many fintech companies that provide services paylater, the implementation is unlimited, paylater made fintech generally an “online” credit platform that can be used anywhere, from E-commerce, to retail outlets.