MUFG Reportedly Exploring Investments to Akulaku Valued at IDR 3,1 trillion

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. (MUFG) is reportedly exploring an investment agreement of $200 million or around IDR 3,1 trillion Akulaku. Reported from Bloomberg, This investment is said to be utilized Akulaku to expand its business reach in Southeast Asia.

The source stated that currently MUFG is negotiating regarding an investment agreement in the form of financing this with Akulaku. If this agreement occurs, valuation Akulaku has the potential to reach $ 1,5 billion or Rp. 23,4 trillion.

Throughout 2022, Akulaku actively increasing business capital to realize its expansion. It was recorded last February, Akulaku obtained a strategic investment of IDR 1,4 trillion from a leading bank from Thailand, namely Siam Commercial Bank (SCB).

Then, a month later, Akulaku re-received funding in kind debt funding of $ 10 million or the equivalent of IDR 143 billion from Lend East. This funding is used to increase the loan portfolio in their main operational markets, namely Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Recently, MUFG acquired a company with a similar business model, namely Home Credit. To quote CNBC Indonesia, MUFG through its subsidiary Bank of Ayudhya fully acquired Home Credit in the Philippines, while in Indonesia the portion was 85%. This corporate action was carried out to enlarge MUFG's consumer business in Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, this acquisition is targeted to be fully completed in 2023.

Similar to Akulaku, Home Credit has a service paylater named "Pay Later" which was launched in 2021. BayarNanti is one of the company's strategies to make it easier for people to access multipurpose financing, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.

portofolio Akulaku

Established in 2014, Akulaku presents a diverse portfolio of financial products to reach a wider market segment. The company offers a service e-commerce, paylater (BNPL), cashloan, and digital banks.

Now, Akulaku pocketed more than 8 million active monthly, 32 million registered users, and 295 million transactions on its platform. Recently, Akulaku too cooperate with Alipay+ to expand the use of the product paylater.

Other than that, Akulaku also developed a series of technologies to increase banking capabilities in entering the digital era, some of the products offered included e-KYC, verification systems, to QR payment services.

BNPL is one of the fintech products that people are interested in because it offers short-term financing options that allow customers to buy products and pay for them later, interest-free or at low interest.

One of the driving forces for the growth of this service is the rapid growth of e-commerce transactions in the country. Based on the research conducted Kredivo for respondents who make non-cash transactions on e-commerce platforms, there is an increase in transactions using paylater by 10% from 28% in 2021 to 38% in 2022.