Indonesian fintech company LinkAja has received a strategic investment from Grab as part of its Series B round.
Grab led the round as a minority investor, with participation from Telkomsel, BRI Ventures and Mandiri Capital.
As per a press release, LinkAja has received a total commitment of up to approximately US$100 million for the new round.
The fintech firm will use the money to accelerate its growth. It also seeks to position itself as the leading fintech provider for the middle-class and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia.
Also Read: Indonesia’s state-owned lender BNI to set up a US$50M VC arm, to invest in LinkAja
The strategic investment from Grab allows both parties to collaborate on areas of market access and technology. Together, they hope to accelerate financial inclusion within the archipelago.
LinkAja is the flagship product of Finarya, an electronic money issuer and digital financial services provider and subsidiary of Telkomsel.
In June 2019, it also developed an e-wallet in collaboration with Indonesia’s state-owned enterprises.
Since then, LinkAja has rapidly developed its user and merchant base for e-payment services and built a fintech platform to enable digital financial services focused on Indonesia’s middle-class/aspirant and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) segments in the archipelago.
LinkAja claims it currently has more than 58 million registered users, and more than 80 per cent of users come from Indonesia’s tier 2 and 3 cities.
In April 2020, LinkAja launched sharia e-money in Indonesia that has received a Sharia Conformity certification license from the National Sharia Council of the Indonesian Ulema Council and Bank Indonesia. Within six months of launch, more than one million users had registered with the Sharia platform.
Grab launches tech centre
Additionally, Grab has announced the opening of its tech centre in Indonesia. The centre will also serve as its regional innovation hub dedicated to building technology solutions for MSMEs in Southeast Asia.
Also Read: Why digital lending services for MSMEs are the next big thing in SEA?
The centre is located at Gama Tower, with facilities spanning over nine floors and 12,000 sqm in total.
As a regional innovation hub for MSMEs, the centre will focus on researching, designing and testing tools and technology for the Indonesian MSME market first, which will then be exported to other emerging markets in Southeast Asia.
The launch of the tech centre supports the ‘Grab for Good’ goals announced last year, which includes digitalising five million traditional and small businesses by 2025.
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Image Credit: Photo by Fikri Rasyid on Unsplash
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