Tencent, Block join Series B for Indonesia's Flip
Indonesian consumer payments platform Flip has upsized its Series B round to more than USD 100m with the addition of Tencent Holdings and Block – formerly Square – to the investor roster and re-up from Insight Partners.
The latest tranche is described as the second close, with Tencent identified as the lead investor. It follows a first close of USD 48m in December 2021, which was led by Sequoia Capital India, Insight, and Insignia Venture Partners. This represented Insight’s first foray into Indonesia. Sequoia led a Series A in 2020 and joined Insignia in a seed round in 2019.
Flip was founded in 2015 by Ginanjar Ibnu Solikhin, Rafi Putra Arriyan, and Luqman Sungkar (pictured, upper centre, lower centre, and right, with COO Gita Prihanto on the left) while they were still students at the University of Indonesia. They wanted to provide a solution to a common student problem: long turnaround times on money transfers and paying fees to banks on every transaction.
The company, which received a license from Indonesia’s central bank in 2016, provides a suite of P2P payment services, facilitating streamlined interbank and overseas transfers, e-wallet top-ups, and digital products. There are also business services, including employee payroll, customer refunds, invoicing and supplier payments, and international transfers.
Flip claims more than 10m users, hundreds of business clients of all sizes, and partnerships with over 100 domestic banks. In the first half of 2022, the company increased its headcount by 30% to 400. The new funding will support continued hiring, with a focus on engineering and product teams, investments in new product and technology development, and general business expansion.
“We believe in the vast potential of P2P payment because it is customary in Indonesia to send money via transfer for both personal, family, or household purposes. Despite many others trying and failing, we have succeeded in capturing the market because of our customer-focused understanding,” Arriyan, who serves as CEO, said in a statement.
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