Kosuke Mori of Credit Saison (left) and Adrianus Hitijahubessy of JULO
Indonesia-based fintech startup JULO today announced that it has raised US$80 million in funding from Credit Saison, a Japan-based company that provides digitalised and localised financial services to the underserved market in Southeast Asia and India.
This funding includes a mix of US$30 million equity and US$50 million debt fully funded by Credit Saison.
In a press statement, the companies stated that the investment round was structured to scale JULO’s growth with a two-pronged approach.
The US$30 million equity will be used to advance JULO’s analytics, for product development, marketing, and customer acquisition plans by hiring additional talent across their developer, data scientist and business intelligence teams. Meanwhile, the US$50 million debt will be used to fuel finance loans on the platform.
As the only corporate investor in the startup with a global lending business, Credit Saison stated that it will play an active role in JULO’s hyper-growth phase and provide governance direction as the company scales. Both companies will also explore preliminary opportunities to expand into other emerging markets together.
For Credit Saison, the investment is aimed to accelerate its expansion to the Indonesian market. The investment strategy builds on its existing activities in emerging markets via Saison
Capital, the corporate venture capital arm with a focus on discovering startups with an opportunity to build embedded finance capabilities.
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“Credit innovation requires a deep understanding of local consumer behaviours and needs in order to truly improve the financial health of all. JULO has emerged from the past few years as a resilient and COVID-19-proven business with more than US$300 million in disbursements under its belt to date. We look forward to joining hands with them in this next phase of growth to accelerate financial products that will drive truly meaningful change for individuals in Southeast Asia,” said Kosuke Mori, Senior Managing Executive Officer and Head of Global Business at Credit Saison.
JULO is one of the earliest in the Indonesian market to offer a virtual credit card service. In 2021, it launched a digital credit card which claimed to have seen 97 per cent of users utilising non-cash features to top-up e-wallets, top-up phone credits, pay utility bills, and process payments on e-commerce sites.
Previously it raised a US$60 million Series B funding round in February.
Its investors include Skystar Capital, Saratoga Investama, East Ventures, Quona Capital, Central Capital Ventura, MDI Ventures, Gobi Partners and others.
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Image Credit: JULO
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