Akseleran raises US$2.5M funding
Indonesian peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform Akseleran announced that it has raised a IDR35 billion (US$2.5 million) funding round from undisclosed banks as well as local and foreign venture capital firms.
On a press conference on Thursday, February 7, Akseleran CEO Ivan Tambunan said that the company is aiming for IDR105 billion (US$7.5 million) for this Series A funding round. If everything goes according to plan, the startup will finalise the funding round in March or April 2019.
With the funding, Akseleran plans to develop it technology, particularly its UI/UX; acquire new talents; and expand its presence in Bali and Celebes. The company is also planning to launch several new products.
Akseleran said that at the beginning of the year, it has begun working with e-commerce giants Tokopedia and Bukalapak. By working with these two marketplace platforms, the company expects to add the number of loan recipient this year.
“Our target is to have more than 2,000 loan recipients by end of 2019. By far we have secured around 450 loan recipients. We also have plans to work with B2B companies to add the number of loan recipients,” Tambunan said.
Throughout 2018, Akseleran had channeled a total of IDR210 billion (US$15 million) of loan. By the end of 2019, the company aims to channel up to IDR1.2 trillion (US$85 million).
“We had also experienced an increase in the number of lender, from 25,000 in 2018 to 56,000. The majority of them came from three finance institutions –Indo Surya, Global Indo, and Andalan– and individuals,” Tambunan said.
At the moment the company own four lending products for businesses: Invoice financing (which contributed to a total of 85 per cent of loan on the platform), inventory financing, capital expenditure, and online merchant financing.
“We have recorded 75 per cent of repeat transaction. This indicates lenders’ commitment to loan recipients on the Akseleran platform,” Tambunan said.
Licence finalisation and product launch
Akseleran has also begun to add consumer loan to its list of new products since January. In this segment, the startup is working with relevant partner Best Finance.
“We also have plan to launch employee loan service. Once it is ready to launch, the service will be beneficial for recipients with employers’ recommendation,” Tambunan said.
As a P2P lending service, Akseleran claimed to have been able to curb non-performing loan (NPL) rate to 0.5 per cent. The company was able to achieve this number by focussing on mid-size businesses such as oil and gas, retail, and construction. These certain nature of these businesses is able to convince lenders to continue on using Akseleran platform, according to Tambunan.
To strengthen its position as a P2P lending platform, Akseleran expected to secure licence by the financial service authority (OJK) this year. The process requires time and preparation, which includes the implementation of seamless digital signature feature. OJK also requires digital lending companies to keep money on escrow accounts for no more than two days.
“In accordance to OJK’s regulatory sandbox, we aim to be able to fulfill all the requirements for official OJK licence this year,” Tambunan said.