Female-focused Indonesia lending platform raises $28m

US non-profit Women’s World Banking led the round alongside MDI Ventures. Existing investors Mandiri Capital Indonesia and UOB Venture Management provided support. It comes three months after the company received $50 million in debt financing from US-based Lendable. Previous investors include Line Ventures, Bamboo Capital Partners, Lynix Asia Partners, and Beenext.

Amartha aims to empower women entrepreneurs in rural areas through financial literacy education and entrepreneurship training, as well as by facilitating loans in a range of IDR 3-10 million ($200-700). The service encompasses peer-to-peer lending and end-to-end loan management, including origination, disbursement, and repayment support. The company also offers a credit scoring system specifically designed for un-bankable individuals.

To date, Amartha has disbursed $240 million in loans to more than 661,000 women micro-entrepreneurs across 18,900 villages in Java, Sumatra and Sulawesi. The company plans to use the new funding to reinforce its community lending, or “gareem,” business and advance new product rollouts. This will include projects in village digitization, group buying, crowdfunding, and loans for family street stall vendors, known locally as warungs.

MDI Ventures is expected to facilitate a partnership with its parent Telkom Group. “In Amartha MDI sees the realization of the promise for accessible finance,” Donald Wihardja, CEO of MDI Ventures, said in a statement. “By successfully implementing grameen style group lending, Amartha has proven that it is indeed able to deliver financing, at reasonable rate, to the bottom of the pyramid, and do so safely even amidst pandemic.”

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Financials
• Early-stage
• Indonesia
• MDI Ventures
• Mandiri Venture Capital
• UOB Venture Management
• Financial Services
• Fintech