Ringkas, an Indonesia-based digital mortgage platform, today announced it has secured a US$2.3 million pre-seed funding round.
Investors that participated include 500 Global, Iterative Capital, Creative Gorilla Capital, Teja Ventures, Init-6, and several founders of “companies valued at over US$1 billion.”
“Shelter is a basic physiological need that every person should have access to. It unlocks the pursuit of entrepreneurship, career ambition, family, education, and more. Homeownership has been a building block for the advancement of economies, and this is why we believe Ringkas’ application of financial technology to homeownership has the potential to be a multi-billion dollar journey with massive social impact,” commented Khailee Ng, Managing Partner at 500 Global, in a press statement.
With the capital from this round, the company will focus on launching its platform in collaboration with Ciputra Group, the largest property developer in Indonesia.
Over the next six to 12 months, Ringkas plans to onboard 10,000 home seekers and launch its platform across multiple impactful projects in the Greater Jakarta Region in Indonesia. After that, Ringkas will roll out its platform across Indonesia and will consider further expansion in Southeast Asia.
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Founded in early 2022, Ringkas aims to solve the housing problem by digitising the overall value chain and creating an intelligent platform that would simplify the mortgage process, efficiently match customer profiles, and target assets to the risk appetite of the financial institutions.
“Indonesia has millions of home seekers and over 12,000 developers on one side; on the other side, over 1,200 banks and financial institutions. The secret sauce to unlocking this opportunity is to leverage technology to connect all the players in the industry in a simple, fast, and customer-obsessed way,” says Ringkas co-founder Ilya Kravtsov.
The company wrote that the mortgage penetration in Indonesia is one of the lowest in the world with total mortgage lending from banks equivalent to 3.25 per cent of GDP. In comparison, it is 11 per cent of GDP in India and over 50 per cent of GDP in the US.
Furthermore, the Indonesian housing backlog has grown over the years and currently stands at 11.4 million units. The root cause of this challenging situation lies in the fact that 55 per cent of the country’s workforce comprises small and medium entrepreneurs, freelancers, and individuals without a fixed-term contract. According to Ringkas co-founder Leroy Pinto this means over 70 million people in Indonesia struggle to prove to the banking system that they have the financial resources to secure a mortgage.
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Image Credit: Ringkas
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