Earlier this week, Indonesian fintech startup DOKU announced the launch of its Wallet-as-a-Service (WaaS) offering, a
complete e-wallet infrastructure APIs, which allows businesses to add e-wallet capabilities within their ecosystem and offer embedded wallets for their customers.
In introducing this service, the company teams up with Tomoro Coffee and Coda, which already use WaaS services in their routine operations.
DOKU provides a complete suite of online and offline payment solutions, serving over 150,000 merchants across many industries, including TikTok, Google, Garuda, Prudential, and Traveloka. As one of Indonesia’s oldest-running fintech startups, the company has seen it all. Established in 2007, it entered the market when cash was the most popular payment method in the country.
But today, digital payments have become an integral part of the lives of Indonesians. How did DOKU adjust to the changes in the market, and what plan do they have to stay relevant amidst tight competition?
In this email interview with e27, DOKU Co-Founder & COO Nabilah Alsagoff reveals them all. The following is an edited excerpt of the interview:
After years in the industry, what valuable changes have your company gone through? What is the most important milestone that you have achieved?
We will proudly celebrate our 17th anniversary in the Indonesian fintech landscape in early April of this year. Our journey began with a mission to assist international tourists in making digital payments for hotel bookings, aimed at contributing to the recovery of Bali’s tourism following the 2005 bombing incident.
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Over the past 17 years, we have evolved from being a payment gateway to establishing ourselves as a prominent fintech payment company to over-industry solution products, serving a diverse clientele of over 150,000 merchants ranging from enterprises to SMEs.
We earned trust and received challenges from our merchants. As we committed to bringing solutions for payment fintech challenges, we came up with solutions, which is why we have a wide range of products and services. Of course, this is followed by the comprehensive licenses. Our merchants’ pain points actually helped us shape our product strategy over time as we witnessed the fintech industry evolve in Indonesia.
On top of that, our mission remains the same: to make payments easy for everyone by streamlining complex enterprise payment processes and making them more efficient.
In addition to launching this wallet-as-a-service product, what other strategy do you use to adapt to changes in the local market?
Indonesia’s market is very fragmented, and people have different behaviours related to payments according to their needs and surroundings.
Moreover, merchants’ business requirements change dynamically; thus, we believe the industry would need a scalable payment infrastructure that can grow together with their business. DOKU offers a single payment platform with a complete range of payment products that can easily be mixed and matched by various businesses from different categories and scales for a smoother payment experience.
What valuable lessons have you learned from operating in Indonesia?
Our industry is regulated by Bank Indonesia (BI, the Indonesian central bank). Hence, it is important that we pay attention to all the guidelines, especially when releasing new services. We are expected to innovate fast to keep pace with the market demands, and it is necessary for us to balance this with compliance requirements. There is no shortcut to it.
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What do you think will be the most important fintech trend in Indonesia this year?
BI foresees a continual surge in digital banking transactions, with projections indicating a 23.2 per cent growth in 2024 and 18.8 per cent in 2025.
Open Banking will start to be mainstream, as it gives customers more control over their financial data, enabling them to access a wider range of products and services. This drives innovation for new players such as digibank or even the smaller banks to enter the market and compete.
Another notable trend is QRIS payments, especially now with the option of cross-border acceptance. We will see many merchant apps embedding QRIS in their ecosystem, whether online or offline, for a seamless and customised checkout experience.
What other innovation do you plan to launch in 2024?
As DOKU moves towards payment fintech solutions, we will still focus on providing merchant-facing solutions beyond payments. For example, there will be more products and services designed ‘as a service’ to support the backroom operation of a company, on top of our bread-and-butter ‘accept payment’ solutions.
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Image Credit: Doku
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