Payfazz and Agency Strategy to Target "Unbanked Society" in Indonesia

Payfazz is an agency-based financial service aimed at unbanked society. Currently it has been published in the Android platform, to summarize the various types of services that can be accessed by the public through agents. Payfazz coordinate with banks to build a bank distribution network through Payfazz agents that can operate in various places. In other words, Payfazz Agents or referred to as "Nusantara Finance Agents" will be representatives of the bank and Payfazz simultaneously.

For products that can be accessed at this time in the form of credit payments, PPOB (Payment Point Online Bank), Game Vouchers, Multifinance, Credit, and Fund Transfers. In addition, Payfazz is developing a partnership with one of the largest banks in Indonesia to provide Lakupandai services on the Payfazz application. As for features, Payfazz provides a transaction recording system, facility top-up balances, the Print Bluetooth feature to print proof of customer transactions, to business capital loans for agents who need it.

“The basic idea of ​​developing Payfazz came from the Indonesian phenomenon, based on World Bank data, only 36% of Indonesians have bank accounts, and only 4% of Indonesians know and use credit cards. There are more than 170 million Indonesians whose knowledge of financial technology is minimal,” said Hendra Kwik, Co-Founder & CEO of Payfazz.

In his statement, Hendra added the lack of banked-society caused by 3 variable factors, namely (1) the lack of financial literacy among the Indonesian people, (2) the banking sector which considers most of the Indonesian people to be classified as unbankable, (3) distribution of access to ATMs, KC or KCP Banks that have not been comprehensive throughout Indonesia.

On the other hand, the Indonesian people know and are very familiar with information technology in the form of smartphone and the internet. Payfazz's research results show that around 132,7 million Indonesians actively use the internet every day. Seeing this opportunity, Payfazz tried to direct the function smartphone and the internet connection to facilitate online transactions that are often carried out by Indonesian people and become their routine needs such as credit, PPOB transactions and money transfers.

The initial phase was strengthened by Y Combinator and MDI Ventures pendanaan funding

For its operations, currently Payfazz has received funding support from Y Combinator and MDI Venture. Y Combinator is an incubator and global venture capital based in Silicon Valley, which has helped raise global startups such as Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe and Twitch. While MDI Venture is a venture capital owned by Telkom. Payfazz is connected to MDI through incubation in the Indigo Startup Nation program.

With the current business process, Payfazz is very confident that it will succeed, seeing some evidence from similar startups in other developing countries such as M-Pesa in Kenya, Paytm in India and Alipay in China. The business model is considered to bring goodness to the wider community. Nusantara Financial Agents can increase income and the community unbanked become educated and helped to access financial services.

“Currently Payfazz already has tens of thousands of agents from various demographic backgrounds. Most Payfazz agents already have home businesses such as grocery stores and credit counters in various regions in Indonesia. These tens of thousands of Nusantara Financial Agents serve hundreds of thousands of people unbanked and process millions of banking services every month,” added Hendra.

It is also acknowledged that currently there are many similar services, trying to empower unbanked-society in Indonesia. From there, Payfazz tries to specifically target people who are still new to banking services and financial technology. Payfazz uses an agency system and focuses on the community unbanked sebagai end users. Payfazz agents play a role in educating and facilitating banking services for the public unbanked.

Three founders from Jambi who have experience in big startups

Payfazz was founded by 3 people who came from Jambi and have been colleagues since childhood. All three also have experience working in startups that have proven their success and become role models for local startups. First is Hendra Kwik, a graduate of Chemical Engineering from ITB, previously he worked at Kudo. Then Jeffriyanto Guang, graduated from Binus Computer Science, he previously worked at Tiket.com. And the third is Ricky Winata, graduated from Binus Computer Science, he previously worked at Traveloka.

This year, Payfazz's focus is on improving existing features to improve product and service quality. In addition, Payfazz also targets to expand the Nusantara Financial Agent network to reach more people unbanked-society throughout Indonesia. With more Payfazz Agents, he hopes that more and more unbanked society which is helped to easily access banking services such as payments, credit, PPOB, fund transfers and credit/loans.

Indigo incubator guidance results

DailySocial also contacted Ery Punta Hendraswara, Managing Director of Indigo Creative Nation, who is also Payfazz's mentor. Regarding Payfazz, Ery said, "The digital movement for the progress of the nation is non-negotiable, including conducting electronic transactions. Payfazz is one of the effective solutions to accommodate the needs of electronic transactions for the entire community, especially unbanked society."

"In addition to providing agency solutions that can serve efficient electronic transactions for the entire community, Payfazz can develop broader financial solutions, especially through collaboration with various parties, including banks, telecommunications operators, cooperatives, and even companies to manage public investment, such as mutual fund investment," continued Ery.

In its incubator program, Payfazz gets good guidance mentoring intensive to funding to grow even bigger through startup acceleration programs, as well as channeling to relevant markets through marketing channels at Telkom that have developed. Channeling This is what then becomes the acceleration for Payfazz to grow and contribute more to the economic growth of the Indonesian people.