Get 74 Billion Rupiah Funding, Fintech Lending Helicap Startup Expands to Indonesia

Helicopter Capital (Helicap), developer startup lending platform based in Singapore, today (13/9) announced the acquisition of Pre-Series A funding of $5 million (or equivalent to 74 billion Rupiah). The funding was led by East Ventures and Soilbuild Group Holdings. The funding plan will focus on expanding into the Indonesian market.

Its debut in Indonesia will begin by building a technology and data team to increase the company's data collection capacity. In disbursing loans to SMEs, helicopter take advantage of the existing data analysis platform. The analysis is intended to generate credit scores and returns to convince investors (institutions) to provide loans.

Helicap calls itself a Capital as a Services platform with B2B2C coverage. They don't give loans directly, but disbursing loans from organizations that have become partners by providing guarantees from data analysis carried out. Specifically in Indonesia, Helicap admits that it only provides loans from lending agencies that have been registered with the OJK to ensure compliance with regulations here.

The choice of the name "Helicopter" is said to have its own meaning. Helicap accommodates access to credit data collected by various financial organizations. The data is processed in such a way as to provide insight to provide investment allocation. This insight is assessed as "helicopterview" or a thorough understanding of the business to be invested in.

"Southeast Asia is the most growing economic region, driven by SMEs. However, this growth has also resulted in a fragmented lending ecosystem, unable to service capital loans for the business as a whole," said Helicap Co-Founder & CEO David Wang.

Wang continued, East Ventures' entry into the business will provide important support for its presence in Indonesia. Supported by Soilbuild's contribution which will validate Helicap's portfolio, especially because of their expertise in the property business segmentation. Since starting its operations in the second quarter of 2018, Helicap claims to have disbursed loans to more than 100.000 customers.

The presence in Indonesia makes this startup set an optimistic target. Operations in Indonesia are targeted to run in the fourth quarter of this year. In the near future they will also appoint a Country Manager to lead the business maneuver in Indonesia.