Almost a year after their rebranding move, PT Bank Jago Tbk (ARTO) officially introduced its Jago app to the public in Indonesia. The app provides digital financial services that centres around users’ daily life (“life-centric”), complemented with seamless integration to various services and products by ecosystem players.

“To present an innovative and collaborative solution, we work closely with the ecosystem. We expect this app to provide greater financial access to accelerate financial inclusion. There are still many segments that we would like to reach out to Indonesia,” said Bank Jago President Director Kharim Indra Gupta Siregar in a launch event in Jakarta.

At the moment, there is a limited number of features available on the app, from remittance, bill payments, to e-wallet top-up. In the future, the company intends to add more features to lure in the digital-savvy, middle-class segment –be it corporates or individuals.

This will include the bank’s strategic partnership with Indonesian tech giant gojek, with will enable customers to open a new bank account on the ride-hailing platform’s app. “As for the partnership with gojek, our team is still working on the integration process,” Siregar said.

Trying out the Jago app

Bank Jago dubbed itself as a fully digital tech-based bank. Siregar also stressed that the platform’s innovation are fully developed by an in-house team.

DailySocial also had the opportunity to try out the app’s features.

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: gojek invests in Bank Jago; DBS launches currency, crypto exchange

Our first impression was that the onboarding process when creating a new bank account was speedy, with an e-KYC process that lasted no longer than 30 seconds via video call. We then tried out the Pockets feature which enables customers to allocate funds for different purposes. As detailed in the image below, users can personalise their Pockets feature by changing its name, colour, and profile image.

There are two categories in the Pockets feature: Savings and Spendings. Customers can top-up the Savings pocket through various transfer methods from digital banking (from brands such as TMRW, Digibank, Jenius), mobile banking (BCA, Mandiri, CIMB, BRI), SMS banking, internet banking (BCA, Mandiri, BNI, CIMB), ATM (BCA, Mandiri, BNI, BRI, Permata, CIMB), and Jago Branch.

However, it is important to note that the funds in the Savings pocket are transferrable to other bank accounts, helping customers curb unnecessary spending. For remittance, customers need to move the funds to the Spendings pocket, enabling customers to transact with a 0.5 per cent interest rate. Meanwhile, moving funds to the Savings pocket will activate a 3.5 per cent interest rate.

The interesting part is that customers can invite other account holders (“Collaborators”) to collaborate in saving money together. Customers can allow the other to see or use the funds in that pocket with a daily limit that can be set up.

According to Siregar, the collaborative personal finance management feature is not yet available in most banks in Indonesia. The feature was developed based on research done by the team. He believes that there are still many use cases to be explored in the future.

Considering its relatively new use case, and the possibility for it to fall into the category of time deposit, the feature has to go through a risk management process. “This is a unique challenge for Bank Jago. But we have created a simulation of cash flow to enable us to make adjustments in our service,” Siregar explained.

Also Read: gojek invests in Bank Jago to expand its footprint as a leading payment services company in Indonesia

Meanwhile, according to Bank Jago Digital Bank Director Peter van Nieuwenhuizen, the collaborative feature has a great prospect to be implemented in the Indonesian market, due to the culture’s collaborative nature.

“The [features] that we are developing are new models in the banking industry. This is why we will need one to two years to see how well it works with Pockets, or how to figure out what works best,” van Nieuwenhuizen said.

Another interesting feature that Bank Jago introduced is the bill payment feature that enables non-fixed payments such as post-paid mobile phone bills. Through this feature, users can set up an automatic payment or a reminder to confirm how much to pay.

A flashback of Bank Jago’s journey

Bank Artos rebranded to Bank Jago in June 2020, as part of its part to transform its business following an acquisition by a group of investors led by Jerry Ng through PT Metamorfosis Ekosistem Indonesia (MEI) and Patrick Waluyo through Wealth Track Technology Limited (WTT).

gojek Group through its subsidiary GoPay (PT Dompet Anak Karya Bangsa) also holds 22 per cent shares in the company. In March, Singapore-owned investment firm Government of Singapore Investment Corporation Private Limited (GIC) also secured shares in Bank Jago.

The bank’s shareholder composition consists of PT Metamorfosis Ekosistem Indonesia (29,81 per cent), Wealth Track Technology Limited (11,69 per cent), PT Dompet Karya Anak Bangsa (21,40 per cent), GIC Private Limited (9,12 per cent), and the public (27,99 per cent).

Also Read: [Updated] Standard Chartered partners with Bukalapak to launch digital banking solutions

Previously, senior banker and Bank Jago founder Jerry Ng has stated that the collaboration is a key strategy to accelerate the growth of the digital banking business. He gave examples of digital banks in China and South Korea that are focusing on collaboration among ecosystem players, enabling growth through a wider spectrum of products.

This explained the various strategic partnerships in various verticals that Bank Jago has done since 2020. At the moment, only gojek has signed up to become a strategic partner for the company.

“We have to create unique value proposition. What we did was combining both as they each their own uniqueness. Banks are no longer the centre of the ecosystem, instead, it is now part of the ecosystem. If we are able to position ourselves correctly, we will be able to play a strategic role. Because the transaction is the centre of what the customers are doing,” Ng said.

Other digital banks in Indonesia

The competition landscape among digital banks in Indonesia is getting tougher this year. Following the launch of apps by Bank Neo Commerce and Bank Jago, other banks have also begun to anticipate the competition by launching a digital bank. We noted several names in the list such as Bank Digital BCA, SeaBank, and KB Bukopin

Bank Agro is applying for a digital bank license to Financial Services Authority (OJK), following the appointment of Kaspar Situmorang as Managing Director. He was previously Executive Vice President Digital Center of Excellence, a digital transformation division at BRI.

Last year, Indra Utoyo, Digital, IT and Operational Director at BRI, told DailySocial that there is a great potential for BRI Agro to be converted into a digital bank as it has launched digital lending platform Pinang (Pinjam Tenang). This platform serves as an early test case for the market.

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: How SEA startups resisted challenges in 2020; AirAsia partners with MaGIC for drones-based delivery in MY

SeaBank, which had changed its rebranded from its original brand Bank Kesejahteraan Ekonomi (BKE), has also been reported to consider acquiring other banks to strengthen its capital structure, enabling it to secure digital bank licence. SeaBank still falls under the BUKU II category in Indonesia with an IDR1.3 trillion (US$89 million) capital by September 2020 and a total asset of IDR3.6 trillion (US$246 million) by December 2020.

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The article Bank Jago Resmi Meluncurkan Aplikasi Keuangan Digital, Berfokus pada Sentra Kehidupan was written by Corry Anestia in Bahasa Indonesia for DailySocial. English translation and editing by e27.

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Philippines-based fintech startup Plentina has raised US$2.2 million in a seed financing round, co-led by Andrew Vigneault (CEO of ClearGraph and former Tableau executive), Unpopular Ventures, and DV Collective.

Other investors in the round include JG Digital Equity Ventures (JGDEV), Amino Capital, Canaan Partners Scout Fund, Ignite Impact Fund, and some undisclosed strategic angels and family offices.

The fintech startup has previously raised US$750,000 in pre-seed from investors such as Techstars, Emergent Ventures, and 500 Startups Vietnam.

Plentina said in a press note that it will use the newly-raised capital to grow its data science, business development and customer operations teams.

The Philippines has long lost trust in a credit system due to illegitimate and predatory lenders. Plentina aims to solve that by using Machine Learning (ML) to gauge the trustworthiness of financial lenders.

Also Read: How Finory aims to improve financial literacy; one credit card at a time

The startup was founded in 2020 by two data scientists Kevin Gabayan and Earl Valencia, who met at Stanford 14 years ago while they were still graduate school students studying ML.

Observing the low credit card penetration trend in the Philippines, the two decided to use ML to reveal creditworthy borrowers in emerging markets.

The startup has developed a mobile app that offers store credit instalment loans with major retail partners, including 7-Eleven Philippines and Smart Communications.

Since obtaining its lending license, Plentina claims its app has been downloaded more than 30,000 times.

“Accessing financial services in emerging markets can be inefficient. We’re happy to provide consumers more convenient and flexible payments while helping merchants upgrade their sales channels,” said Gabayan.

“Plentina believes that ML and partnerships can unlock credit potential for the over 100 million Filipinos. With a median age of 24 and an emerging middle class, this generation will be expecting a digital-first financial services product that we aim to provide,” he added.

“Kevin and Earl have developed a brilliant go-to-market strategy that has positioned Plentina to be able to promote financial literacy and inclusion at scale in the Philippines and am excited to have the opportunity to be along for the ride,” lead investor Andrew Vigneault about the potential of the Plentina business opportunity.

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Image Credit: Plentina

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Southeast Asian superapp Grab has acquired a 4 per cent stake in Indonesian media and technology conglomerate Emtek, The Straits Times has reported.

Citing a source, the report stated the transaction was valued at more than IDR 4 trillion (US$274 million) and took place in a recent private placement sale of Emtek shares.

The deal was reportedly transacted through an investment company named H Holdings Inc., which joined Korean web search giant Naver Corporation in the sale of shares amounting to 8.4 per cent of Emtek’s capital.

According to a filing to the Indonesian Stock Exchange, the fresh funds will go towards expanding the conglomerate’s business and funding daily operations.

Also Read: Why frictionless payments is the key to merchant success in the modern world

Grab’s purchase of Emtek fuels speculation that their digital payment firms, OVO and DANA respectively, could merge. Earlier in September 2019, Reuters reported that Grab was in talks to merge back entities.

Due to the low banking penetration rate in Indonesia (where 52 per cent of the population remains unbanked), regional giants like Grab are moving fast in an attempt to capture a slice of the lucrative digital banking pie.

GoPay, which is part of ride-hailing giant gojek, spent US$160 million to increase its stake in Bank Jago to 22.16 per cent. gojek’s e-wallet customers will have the opportunity to open accounts with Bank Jago, which launched yesterday and is set to become the country’s first fully digital bank.

Earlier this year, Sea acquired Indonesia’s non-listed Bank Kesejahteraan Ekonomi and renamed it SeaBank, in a move aimed at allowing its e-commerce users to access an integrated suite of financial services.

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Image Credit: Grab

The post Grab acquires US$274M stake in Emtek, fuels talk of OVO-DANA merger: Report appeared first on e27.