Finch secures 2.7x return on Indonesia's Cermati

East Ventures, which according to AVCJ Research has invested in Cermati twice since 2015, has also exited to Djarum, the firm’s co-founder and managing partner Wilson Cuaca told Bisnis Indonesia. The sale price has not been disclosed, though Finch – then called Orange Growth Capital – was reported to have invested a “seven-digit” US dollar figure in 2017.

Cermati launched in 2014 as a marketplace for off-the-shelf financial products such as personal loans and credit cards, and has since expanded its offering to include car loans, mortgages, and health and car insurance. It also partners with financial institutions, providing software for ID verification, risk assessment, and loan underwriting. The company has more than one million customers in 10 Indonesian cities.

“Cermati is a perfect example of how technology-enabled businesses can penetrate a market that previously was difficult to access,” said Hans de Back, a partner at Finch, in a statement. “Indonesians have a strong appetite for financial products, as the country’s economy is seeing significant growth and a large part of the population previously did not have access to financial products.”

Finch has offices in Amsterdam, London, and Singapore, and backs early-stage technology companies in Southeast Asia and Europe. Its Indonesia portfolio also includes mobile bill payment platform Ayopop and customer engagement platform Tada, which it backed in November 2017 and June of this year, respectively.

Venture capital firms focused on Southeast Asia have seen a growing range of exit avenues in recent years. Along with trade sales to local players like Djarum, regional strategic interests have also become increasingly prominent, as with Alibaba Group and its purchase of Lazada in 2016. The US IPO of Sea Group last year is also seen to indicate the viability of global liquidity paths for local tech start-ups.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Technology
• Financials
• Trade sale
• Indonesia
• TMT
• East Ventures
• Exit