Transfez Pockets Early Stage Funding Led by East Ventures and BEENEXT

After last year had said fundraising plan, the fintech platform that offers digital remittance services Transfez today (19/5) announced that it has just completed their initial round of stages. East Ventures and BEENEXT are involved in leading this funding.

"We are very pleased to have two well-known investors who support Transfez's mission. Today, cross-border payments are complicated due to different requirements and payment channels in each country. As a result, transactions are expensive and time-consuming. Our goal is to simplify complex processes that," said Transfez CEO Edo Windratno.

This fresh fund will be used by the company for product development and market penetration. Currently, Transfez serves the B2C sector offering remittance services to 26 foreign currencies in more than 50 countries. In addition, Transfez will also expand its services to the B2B payment sector in the near future.

Launched in early 2020, Transfez has now processed a total of IDR 1,5 trillion ($105 million) in transactions. Apart from the Covid-19 pandemic, they also claim to have experienced a 30x growth in the number of transactions processed in the past year.

Transfez offers international money transfer services at a cost of up to 10x lower than conventional banks with an all-digital process and real-time. Customers can send and receive their money in minutes because Transfez has liquidity in every country where the company operates.

"We believe that the Transfez team has the ability to serve millions of Indonesians to send and receive money digitally around the world in a more cost-effective, seamless and secure way," said East Ventures Partner Melisa Irene.

The rise of remittance players in Indonesia

Since 2015, remittance services have been presented by many foreign and local platforms in Indonesia. One of the main reasons is, tocater the number of migrant workers and migrant workers abroad in terms of sending money to families in the country.

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported that the number of Indonesian migrant workers abroad was 276.553 people. Taiwan, Malaysia and Hong Kong are three favorite destinations for our workers. Meanwhile, the number of Indonesian students studying in other countries is 20.225 people. Both students and workers are the foundation of the remittance business, but their market has the potential to continue to widen.

Not just platforms fintech as Transfree, Xendit, TransferWise, wallex, Zendmoney, OY!, TrueMoney, RemitPro who try to offer similar services, banking services such as BNI also began to actively develop their technology by establishing strategic collaborations with related parties to strengthen remittance services.

While BRI Ventures involved in funding Nium, a Singapore-based remittance startup.

Economist from Center of Reform on Economics (CORE) Yusuf Rendy Manilet evaluate, the popularity of remittances this year cannot be separated from its enormous potential. The huge potential that has been relatively recently touched by digital players places remittances as the next most promising derivative of fintech services.

One of the factors driving the large potential for remittances is the number of Indonesian workers and students abroad. Moreover, according to Yusuf, Indonesia will experience a demographic bonus. The growth of the productive age group will still increase — something he considers convincing investors of the prospects of the remittance business.