Indonesia’s Sharia-based P2P lending platform ALAMI has acquired BPRS Cempaka Al-Amin for under US$10 million, DealstreetAsia has reported citing undisclosed sources.

BPRS Cempaka Al-Amin is a Sharia-compliant P2P lending platform.

As per the DSA report, this deal will provide the bank with the fresh capital to comply with new rules set out by the Indonesian Financial Services Authority (OJK). The ruling body has mandated rural banks in Jakarta must have a minimum paid-up capital of IDR 100 billion (US$6.95 million).

Neither ALAMI nor BPRS Cempaka has confirmed the development with DealStreetAsia.

A person with the knowledge of the matter told e27 that there’s a conversation around ALAMI’s acquisition of a BPRS, but declined to share details.

Also Read: ALAMI is on a journey to popularise sharia-based finance in Indonesia. Here’s how they do it

Launched in 2017, ALAMI partners with sharia banks to provide invoice financing services for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It recently expanded its services to provide P2P lending solutions upon securing a P2P license from OJK and claims to have grown three times year-on-year.

The company announced in January that it had raised more than US$20 million in an equity and debt funding round co-led by AC Ventures and Golden Gate Ventures. Other investors participating in the funding round included global fintech fund Quona Capital.

This influx of capital came a year after its US$1.5 million seed funding round led by Golden Gate Ventures, which ALAMI claimed to be the first sharia-based VC funding in Southeast Asia.

In September 2020, Nikkei Asia reported that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Islamic finance thrived in Indonesia as banks and fintech companies “rushed” to seize opportunities in the market. E-payments platform LinkAja launched its sharia-compliant service in April as the market saw a rising demand for halal products and services in various aspects of life.

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Esensi Solusi Buana (ESB), an Indonesia-based restaurant management platform, has raised US$3 million in a Series A funding round led by Beenext.

AC Ventures, Skystar Capital and Selera Kapital also participated.

ESB plans to use the fresh money to introduce new features to its technology stack and expand its partnerships with restaurants. It aims to emulate the path of Toast, a similar company from the US that is currently valued at US$8 billion.

ESB noted the F&B industry in Indonesia accounts for over US$57 billion in annual revenue and will continue growing rapidly driven by increasing numbers of middle-class consumers. Despite this, the industry struggles with losses due to operational inefficiencies from manual inventory planning, disorganized waste management and fraud.

The startup was founded two years ago with the goal of solving that problem by building an end-to-end SaaS platform for F&B businesses. Its suite of solutions includes a cloud-based mobile ordering system that syncs up automatically with restaurants’ POS system, kitchen management system and enterprise resource pricing (ERP).

According to ESB, these technology stacks allow restaurants to reduce time to serve customers and eliminate errors in information entry.

The firm disclosed that it has experienced growth of 12x in the number of partners over the period of 2020 and seen less than five per cent churn from its user base. Notable clients include local F&B groups such as Boga Group, MAP Boga and Ismaya Group.

Also Read: What new digital solutions mean for Indonesia’s F&B sector

“We’ve had good feedback from our merchants and brands, and over 90 per cent of them continue to utilise our system as they’ve experienced the operational benefits ESB has to offer,” noted Eka Prasetya, COO of ESB.

ESB also helped F&B business during COVID-19 lockdown restrictions by launching solutions for restaurants to deliver independently and enable contactless dining. With this function, restaurants can serve delivery orders without having to incur the commission cost charged by delivery platforms, allowing them to increase their margins.

Within six months of launching, ESB claims to have generated over 20 million annual orders for its customers.

“ESB is empowering and enabling restaurants to focus on what they do best, serving their customers with great food, and letting ESB take care of the technology,” said Teruhide Sato, Founder and CEO of Beenext.

“ESB’s data-driven and hardware agnostic approach enable the platform to solve a pressing pain point for merchants today,” opined Adrian Li, Founder and Managing Partner of AC Ventures.

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Image Credit: ESB

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Singapore’s container haulage platform Haulio raises pre-series A

Investors: Supply Chain Angels (lead), B7 Capital, GHS Ventures, Guava Capital, iSeed SEA, Iterative, PSA unboXed.

What the funds will be used for: Expansion across Southeast Asian markets within the next three years.

About Haulage: Founded in 2017, Haulage aims to digitise port logistics for companies, clients and drivers. It works by bringing hauliers and shippers into one single platform to better streamline fleet management and trucking services.

The firm claims to have moved over two million tonnes of cargo since launching its portal in May 2017, averaging 300 containers a day.

Batumbu receives digital lending licence in Indonesia

The story: Batumbu, a subsidiary of Validus, has received approval from the Indonesian Financial Services Authority (OJK) to operate as a licensed digital financing platform.

About Batumbu: Founded in 2019, Batumbu offers short-term financing solutions for SME entrepreneurs. The company claims to have disbursed over US$153 million to MSMEs since starting its operations, recording close to 650 per cent annual growth in 2020.

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: ByteDance game plan, and does AirAsia foray into food delivery even make sense?

So far Validus has regulatory approvals in Singapore (Validus Capital) and Thailand (Siam Validus).

Ouch! bags US$364K seed funding for its insurance platform

Investors: Vynn Capital, Temokin, undisclosed angel investors.

What the funds will be used for: Product and business development.

About the startup: Ouch! is a mobile app for users to purchase, manage and learn about digital insurance products.

More about the story: The company is slated to revamp its app in April and has plans to introduce “something big in the future”. It also intends to raise more funding later in 2021.

74% of Singaporeans are shopping online after COVID-19: Visa study

The story: According to the study, 71 per cent of respondents are using home delivery services more habitually, while 25 per cent have started using home delivery for the first time.

67 per cent of Singaporeans have also reduced spending on international travel, out-of-home entertainment (63 per cent), luxury items (59 per cent), and fine-dining (57 per cent).

How the data was compiled: Survey conducted on 1,000 Singaporeans aged between 18 and 65.

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Image Credit:  Nilantha Ilangamuwa

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Bali and Riau Islands have climbed up the digital competitiveness index as the provinces with the most promising digital ecosystem in Indonesia for the tech industry to grow in, according to a recent report by East Ventures.

Bali has moved up to the fourth position, up to three positions from last year’s result, while Riau Islands moved up to seventh from tenth, just below Jogjakarta which has been widely known as a centre of tech talents in Indonesia.

Bali, with its capital city Denpasar, is also reported to have the second-best digital infrastructure in the country after DKI Jakarta. This assessment was concluded from the number of villages in the province that have received 3G and 4G networks.

As for Riau Islands, the proximity of its largest city Batam to Singapore have turned this province into a destination of digital investment. There were also several collaborations between Indonesia and Singapore in the form of projects such as Nongsa Digital Park.

“[The index revealed that] digital competitiveness between provinces in Indonesia tend to be dominated by provinces in the Java island followed by Sumatra and Borneo. Provinces in the Eastern part of the country tend to score the lowest,” the report details. “This pattern remains consistent in both 2020 and 2021.”

In the report, the top three positions were still dominated by DKI Jakarta, West Java, and East Java –a position that remains consistent since the report’s previous edition in 2020.

Also Read: In brief: Haulio, Ouch! raise funding; Indonesia’s Batumbu receives digital lending license

East Ventures explained that there are six factors that they considered in deciding a province’s digital competitiveness: Human resource, ICT use, ICT spending, entrepreneurship and productivity, labour, infrastructure, funding, regulations and government capacity.

Bali and Riau Islands received top scores particularly in the human resource as well as entrepreneurship and productivity factors.

In general, the report stated that the country’s digital competitiveness index increase from 27.9 in 2020 to 32 in 2021. This indicated a more even distribution of opportunities in provinces across the country, particular between top- and middle-tier provinces.

COVID-19 and the growth of the digital economy

The report also highlighted changes in the national digital economy as affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The statistical survey agency in Indonesia revealed in August 2020 that the national aggregate number of internet users in the country increased six per cent within just three month –from 48.4 per cent in 2019 to 54.4 per cent in 2020.

There was also an increase of users accessing the internet from home from 95 to 96 per cent, followed by a decrease from users accessing from office (32 per cent to 30 per cent) and school (15 per cent to 13 per cent). This change was certainly related to the lockdown measures implemented in some parts of the year.

Commenting on the urgent need for digital transformation in a post-pandemic era, Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartanto stated in the report that the government will put greater focus on developing talents through various training programmes.

Another factor that is just as crucial is access and connectivity, represented by the installation of fibre optic cable across Indonesia, and the country’s effort to get corporations to set up their data centre in Indonesia.

“We already have a full geospatial data that we just have to integrate with the data centre at the development planning agency (Bappenas). In the past few years, we have been encouraging cloud data centre to move to Indonesia. We have been in talks with the Singapore government about setting up a data centre in Batam, West Java, and one more province. In the future, we will also be working on a 5G prototype,” he stated.

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Image Credit: Hazmi Abdun Nazir on Unsplash

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The rise in the use of video conferencing and business communication platforms like Zoom and Slack in 2020 quickly helped businesses operate virtually despite Covid-19 social distancing restrictions across Asia. However, while internal communications recovered quickly, the challenge lay in deal-making with new business partners or supporting nascent partnerships inked just prior to or during the pandemic.

The Hyper Interdisciplinary Conference in Singapore 2021 (HIC SG 2021) addressed these issues and more, centred around its theme of re-learning and adaptability. Hosted by Leave a Nest Singapore virtually out of Singapore on Feb 27, 2021, the full-day conference addressed current critical issues such as climate change, poverty, and healthcare needs.

HIC SG 2021 drew more than 500 startups, academic researchers, and multinational corporations (MNCs) from over 14 countries, bringing interdisciplinary experts to blend ideas and formulate solutions to these critical issues.

Collaboration to address critical issues

HIC SG 2021 envisions accelerating “knowledge manufacturing” across disciplines to solve deep issues in Southeast Asia and the world by discussing four key topics: the evolution of decentralized economies in Southeast Asia, unleashing foodtech for healthy living, evolving proof-of-concept (POC) collaborations without physical gatherings, and solving global issues with project design.

The first session on decentralized economies in Southeast Asia featured one such Southeast Asian-Japanese collaboration, between the world’s second-largest drone company Malaysia’s Aerodyne Group and Japan’s Autonomous Control Systems Laboratory, which was the first drone-maker to list publicly in December 2018.

Also read: Meet these 5 verified investors that are ready to connect with you today

The second session, meanwhile, focused on foodtech to unleash the potential of food for healthy living by leveraging science and technology. It tracked how Japan’s Rohto Pharmaceutical pivoted and expanded its remit to agriculture and food-related projects, taking a more holistic view of the healthcare sector.

Southeast Asia’s story of opportunity

The third session explored how PoC projects continued without face-to-face meetings in the Covid-19 era. Satoshi Yamanaka, senior manager at Mitsubishi Electric’s Center for Future Innovation, explained how the Japanese MNC continued working with several Southeast Asian startups.

He said: “At the Center for Future Innovation, we act as the focal point through which the startup ecosystem can actively collaborate and connect with all 10 of Mitsubishi Electric’s business units.”

The team has only two members — Yamanaka and Kenji Minefuji — a rare occurrence in the corporate innovation space. Together, Yamanaka and Minefuji have over 30 years of experience in R&D, engineering and technology development across several of Mitsubishi Electric’s diverse business units. Their shared expertise and extensive knowledge of the Japanese MNC’s inner processes have led to the Center for Future Innovation making several pivotal collaborations happen between Mitsubishi Electric and innovative Southeast Asian startups.

Mitsubishi Electric provided funding support for Azura Marine Indonesia, which has developed solar-powered electric motors that help fishermen save costs and the environment.

Also read: Scaling communities like startups

Another collaboration was with Thailand’s System Stone, which has developed Factorium, a mobile-based factory maintenance system that encourages preventive maintenance to reduce repair time by more than 30% and repair cases by 25%.

Its POC project involves testing Factorium’s data integration architecture by linking it to Mitsubishi Electric’s factory automation systems, which is used by many Thai manufacturers.

“For us, Southeast Asia represents a big opportunity, driven by the use of English as the region’s second language and its timezone difference of less than two hours from Japan,” he added.

Yamanaka noted that Japan’s treasure trove of technologies can be adapted to address issues prevalent in Southeast Asia, such as reducing factory downtimes and making its fishing industry more sustainable.

Bolstering partnerships in a pandemic

Seeing through both projects through 2020 became essential, as both factories and fisherfolk in Southeast Asia needed to automate quickly to keep costs low to survive the pandemic.

“Despite Covid-19 putting an end to face-to-face meetings, we continued to build on our POC projects. With System Stone, our Thailand team was directly involved with the POC so we had strong local support on the ground.

“Meanwhile, for Azura Marine, we stayed on point by keeping our shared vision in mind, to improve fishermen’s livelihoods and make fishing sustainable,” Yamanaka enthused.

Azura Marine Indonesia co-founder Nadea Nabilla said open and constant communication is key to maintaining trust.

System Stone CEO and co-founder Sittikorn Nualrod meanwhile noted the importance in understanding Mitsubishi Electric’s value propositions at the local Thai, regional Singaporean, and central Japan offices before any virtual meetings.

Also read: Twilio’s annual State of Customer Engagement report

The final session of HIC SG 2021 was focused on solving global issues with project design. The session featured Mitsui Chemicals Singapore R&D Centre’s nanocellulose applications across a range of interdisciplinary chemical reactions.

Mitsui Chemicals works with industry stakeholders such as companies and research institutes to catalyze innovation and create multiple products and services that are in harmony with society and the environment.

Its nanocellulose applications include collaborations with food and beverage packaging industry players to create sustainable or zero-waste foodware.

Building on the learnings of the four sessions and various interdisciplinary collaborations highlighted in HIC SG 2021, the theme of adaptability may continue in the next edition of the HIC in 2022. Moving forward, HIC will keep expanding on the theme of Japan-Southeast Asia collaborations, particularly with regards to Japanese MNCs tapping the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem to spur further innovation.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by 
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