ALAMI Receives "Loan Channeling" Support of 431 Billion Rupiah from Lendable [UPDATED]

Startups p2p loans NATURAL sharia announces support loan channeling aka a financing facility from Lendable, a loan provider institution for developing countries from the UK. Lendable will provide a loan ceiling of up to $30 million (over 431 billion Rupiah) as a senior guarantee facility under the contract Wakalah bil Istithmar.

This agreement will strengthen ALAMI's position as a platform fintech which provides sharia-based productive financing for MSMEs. It is claimed, this facility from Lendable makes ALAMI a startup fintech the first sharia in Indonesia. In the Lendable portfolio, previously disbursed loans to KoinWorks and Amartha.

In an official statement, Co-Founder & CEO NATURAL Group Dima Djani said this facility will be channeled to MSME projects in Indonesia through the ALAMI platform, so that it can contribute significantly in filling the productive financing gap.

“Currently, there is a financing need from SMEs of around $165 billion, but only $57 billion has been met, leaving a large enough gap to be filled. With this facility, we aim to stimulate and revitalize the SME sector, as the backbone of our national economy,” said Dima.

Quoting from various researches, it is said that the potential of the halal industry is very promising. In 2019, its value is estimated at $2,2 trillion, including the culinary, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, fashion and tourism sectors. The industry is projected to increase to $3 trillion by 2023.

In addition, Indonesia's global ranking continues to improve, reaching 4th position as measured by the Global Islamic Economy Indicator (GIEI), after Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

The Indonesian halal industry is an increasingly attractive opportunity for international investors due to the increasing awareness of its ecosystem players including providing financing to support working capital and capital expenditures to meet growing demand.

Financing to support the working capital needs and capital expenditure of innovators fintech such as ALAMI helps meet the growing demand for impactful sharia-based solutions.

According to him, Lendable has values ​​that are in line with the company, namely helping SMEs have access to finance and focus on social impact. He is also optimistic that it will meet financing needs and accelerate the growth of NATURAL's performance this year.

Lendable Chief Investment Officer Hani Ibrahim added, “We are proud to have completed our first sharia-compliant facility and are honored to have worked with the ALAMI team on this milestone. The Lendable facility will give ALAMI the scale and capacity to grow rapidly and sustainably through innovative, technology-enabled work. A capital solution for a large number of underserved and high impact beneficiaries across Indonesia.”

ALAMI is targeting at least doubling its disbursement volume from Rp 2,1 trillion, and increasing the number of SME projects being funded, which currently stands at more than 8.500 projects. Meanwhile, as of March 2022, the company recorded an accumulated loan disbursement of IDR 2,19 trillion. This figure jumped from September 2021 of Rp. 1 trillion.

The largest financing distribution was supported by the telecommunications sector with 18,2% of the total distribution, followed by culinary 14,6% and energy 13,2%. Meanwhile, for lenders (Actioncalendar) NATURAL grew by 370% on an annual basis (year on year) and the number of users of the NATURAL application reaches more than 83 thousand spread throughout Indonesia.

This positive performance is still followed by good financing quality, with TKB90 at the level of 100%, or in the analogy of Islamic banking known as Non-Performing Financing (“NPF”) at the level of 0%.

Funding debt in Indonesia

Lendable previously became Actioncalendar institutions in Amartha disbursed a loan facility of $50 million, while in CoinWorks of $40 million, which is divided into two tranches. Apart from Lendable, there are several other institutions that also provide similar funds for  in Indonesia, for example Accial Capital for Pintek, Cloud Cash, and Investree. In addition, there are GMO Payment Gateway (Investree), Partners for Growth (Kredivo), etc.

Actually, there are two schemes that are widely applied to channel funds from institutions, namely: loan channeling and venture debt. The first scheme is intended for institutions such as banks to channel credit funds to MSMEs through fintech lending. Many local banks are starting to announce their entry into the ecosystem fintech through this collaboration. Recently, there is BCA that disburses funds through iGrow.

While venture debt/funding debt In fact, it is more strategic in nature, such as to finance operations and growth – usually comes in conjunction with equity funding from venture capitalists. But not a few who use the funds given to be redistributed.

Apart from those already mentioned, fintech others who have received funding debt is Digiasia, Kredivo, Modalku, UangTeman, Acceleration, and People's Capital.