Astra Group and WeLab Establish Fintech Lending Company "AWDA"

Astra Group, through its subsidiary Sedaya Multi Investama (SMI), together with WeLab, a p2p lending company from Hong Kong and China, established a joint venture company engaged in fintech lending Astra WeLab Digital Arta (AWDA). AWDA is Astra's way of enlivening its potential in Indonesia who are still experiencing gap which is quite wide.

The launch of AWDA today, Wednesday (5/9), was also attended by the management of Astra International, subsidiaries under Astra Financial, the Financial Services Authority (OJK), and representatives from WeLab. AWDA is the eleventh company under Astra Financial, a company engaged in financial services.

Director of Astra Internasional Suparno Djasmin explained that SMI has a 60% stake in AWDA, while the remaining 40% is owned by WeLab. Both are committed to increasing the paid-up capital to AWDA up to $21 million (approximately 315 billion Rupiah) to support AWDA's business in the future. For its operations, AWDA will be fully under the auspices of the FIF Group, Astra's subsidiary in the financing sector.

"AWDA is a collaboration of two forces, Astra has a strong brand in automotive and finance, and WeLab, which has innovative financial products, can increase financial inclusion," said Suparno.

According to him, Astra partnered with WeLab because they have expertise good for , both in terms of innovation and technology used. WeLab has been operating in business in Hong Kong and China, when accumulated, it is claimed that its total customers reach 30 million people.

WeLab CEO and Founder Simon Loong added that WeLab has actually been eyeing the Indonesian market since 2016 by starting to study market conditions first. In conclusion, Indonesia's condition is not much different from what happened in China in previous years. Indonesia is the third market visited by WeLab, after China in 2014.

"From our side, there will be knowledge transfer for local AWDA talent. We will also develop two products that we have previously mastered, namely loans to individuals and corporates.

AWDA business plan

At the same time, AWDA released the app Maucash, while only available for the Android version. AWDA President Director Rina Apriana explained that there are two loan products offered, Maucepat and Mauringan.

Maucepat provides loans from Rp. 1 million to Rp. 3,5 million with a tenor of 10-30 days. Meanwhile, Mauringan provides loans of Rp. 2 million to Rp. 8 million with a slightly longer tenor of 3-6 months.

"We specifically target young customers who are technology savvy to become Maucash customers. So they can get convenience when looking for loans, hopefully they can be right with what we provide," explained Rina.

Within this year, AWDA will begin to be marketed gradually through the FIF Group network. There were 12 targeted cities, six within Java and the rest outside Java. It is hoped that at this initial stage, AWDA can acquire 5 thousand customers.

"Next we can grow more exponentially, moreover there will be ecosystem synergies that will be carried out from both Astra Financial and Astra Group," added Suparno.

Just like other p2p lending players, Rina explained that for sources of loan funds, her party will open up two sources from institutions, both internal to the Astra Group as well as from external institutions and individual investors.

For now, individual investors are still unable to invest in Maucash. AWDA is still in the process of studying what kind of model is suitable to be applied.

Before being inaugurated to the public, AWDA had already pocketed a registered certificate from the OJK and Kominfo for an electronic-based service provider permit.