Investree Pockets 382 Billion Rupiah Series C Funding for the First Phase

Startups p2p loans Investree announced its series C first phase funding of $23,5 million (over 382 billion Rupiah) led by MUIP, a venture subsidiary of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), and BRI Ventures. Also participating are other investors, SBI Holdings and 9F Fintech Holdings Group, both of which are existing investors who entered the series B round.

In a press conference held onlineInvestree Co-Founder & CEO Adrian Gunadi explained that the fresh funds will be used to strengthen the company's position as a p2p loans forefront for SMEs and support enterprise businesses in Thailand and the Philippines.

"This funding has been Close from mid-March 2020. For close round, we are still in parallel discussions with other potential investors. Is there an increase in terms of quantity? [funding], still in process. We're not in a hurry because we well capitalized," he explained, Wednesday (8/4).

Adrian also said the funding received in the midst of this pandemic, proves investors' strong confidence in the company's strategy and management team. "The platform and robust financial conditions enable the company to tackle today's climate with confidence."

The entry of MUFG and BRI through their respective ventures to Investree, allows the company to deepen the partnership. MUFG is one of the shareholders of Bank Danamon. Synergy with these two banks, he continued, is nothing new. Previously, Investree had started a relationship in 2016 with Bank Danamon and 2018 with BRI.

MUIP President and CEO Nobutake Suzuki said he was confident in investing in Investree because the company has good fundamentals in terms of performance, legality, and a mature background in the financial world. In addition, he sees that from an industrial perspective, Investree has a great opportunity to lead the lending market for SMEs.

BRI Ventures CEO Nicko Widjaja added that his party was interested in Investree because they were successful in serving the business segment underserved, such as creative industries. For conventional financial institutions, this segment tends to be full of risks. "We believe that the collaboration between the BRI and Investree groups that has been going on since 2018 is able to make a significant contribution to economic growth in Indonesia."

Investree pocketed series B funding with an undisclosed value in mid-2018. At that time, the round was led by SBI Holdings Inc, followed by MCI, Persada Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, 9F Fintech Holdings Group, and Kejora Ventures.

Investree's next plan

Adrian sees, in the midst of the ongoing pandemic, the company will enter the green growing industrial sector, namely health and telecommunications. These two sectors are considered to have significant opportunities and can be assisted through financing, especially now that the health industry is at the forefront of fighting the pandemic.

In addition, to reduce the rate of bad loans, the company has established a series of risk mitigations, such as using credit insurance, restructuring and credit insurance reschedule seen on a case by case basis. How is the performance of these borrowers and how far is the impact of Covid-19 on their business.

"Until now we are in discussion with several borrowers from hospitality and retail. We'll see case by case What we can do. Whether the impact is short term, it needs to be restructured. We are ready templateand ready to be delivered to Actioncalendar because we are not the financier."

Regarding the company's expansion to Thailand and the Philippines, so far it is still in the business permit processing stage. If nothing goes wrong, it is estimated that in the third quarter of this year the permit can be pocketed at the latest. "So far the licensing process is still according to our plan and there have been no changes."

Adrian also made sure the company only focused on three countries this year. Thailand and the Philippines were previously chosen because they both have the same problem as Indonesia, namely the low penetration of venture capital loans for SMEs.

"We entered these two countries by cooperating with local partners who know what business and regulations are like there."

As of early April 2020, the company recorded a total loan of Rp. 5,11 trillion and the value of the loan disbursed was Rp. 3,83 trillion. The average rate of return starts at 16% and TKB90 90%. There are 1297 borrowers consisting of individuals and institutions.