Jakarta, 10 January 2022 – Indonesian fintech startup, Koinworks appreciates the launch of the Merah Putih Fund, a funding program worth Rp. 4.3 trillion initiated by the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises and supported by 5 large State-Owned Enterprises including the Telkom Group, Bank Mandiri, and BRI Bank.
The Merah Putih Fund aims to strengthen Indonesia’s economic growth by accelerating local startups that have the potential to become unicorns. According to research firm Tracxn, around 20 Indonesian startups are expected to become unicorns.
KoinWorks as a fintech startup for SMEs has received a series of funding from foreign and domestic investors. Starting from seed round funding in 2016, KoinWorks managed to reach thousands of borrowers through collaboration with e-commerce merchants.
Subsequent investments have slowly helped establish KoinWorks as a leading P2P lending player in the Indonesian SME market and are now a digital SME. Several domestic investment companies have contributed to the growth of KoinWorks, including Mandiri Capital, Gunung Sewu, and Convergence Capital.
After closing its series B funding in 2019, KoinWorks strengthened its system development to provide financial services on one platform, becoming a pioneer of super financial applications in Indonesia (super financial apps) that are more than just a peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform.
Currently, KoinWorks users have reached more than 1 million people spread throughout Indonesia and its users continue to grow because of its innovation and services. This achievement of KoinWorks shows that support and funding are the keys to the progress of the local startup ecosystem.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses require a complete digital shift, which also requires access to digital finance through financial technology or fintech. Seeing these conditions, KoinWorks sees that the Merah Putih Fund was born at the right time to have a positive impact on the development of local fintech.
This funding support will enable fintech players to create digital financial innovations that will support the projection of the Indonesian Ministry of Trade that the digital finance sector will grow eightfold by 2030.
Jonathan Bryan, Chief Marketing Officer of KoinWorks, welcomed this initiative. “The Merah Putih Fund will help local startups to scale up their companies, which of course can increase their competitiveness in the international market. Government support will also spur fintech startups to innovate as more businesses turn to digital,” said Jonathan.
