Ajaib Group, an Indonesian online investment platform targeting millennials and first-time investors, has secured US$25 million in Series A funding, led by Horizons Ventures, the VC firm founded by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing, and Alpha JWC.
Existing investors SoftBank Ventures Asia, Insignia Ventures and Y Combinator also participated in the round, which was closed in two tranches.
The new round brings the total amount of capital raised by the fintech startup to US$27 million.
As per a TechCrunch report, the money will be used to expand Ajaib’s tech infrastructure and products as well as scale its engineering team. In addition, the firm will also work with the government to educate millennials on investing and financial planning.
Founded in 2019 by Anderson Sumarli (CEO) and Yada Piyajomkwan (COO), Ajaib claims it runs the fifth-largest stock brokerage in the archipelago by the volume of trades, with one million monthly users on its platform.
Following the blueprint set out by Robinhood in the US, Ajaib leverages on the high smartphone penetration rate in Indonesia by operating as a mobile-first stock trading platform. By incorporating a simple user interface and investment education features, Ajaib is able to appeal to novice investors and millennials with elementary financial literacy.
Furthermore, it requires no minimum sum to open a brokerage account — further attracting cash-strapped millennials into investing.
Despite its large population, Indonesia has a low penetration rate for stock investments. There are only 1.6 million capital market investors in the country, which is less than 1 per cent of its population of 273 million.
This has led to growing interest from VCs in investment platforms targeting millennials and first-time investors.
Last week, Bibit, a robo-advisor platform, announced a US$30 million funding round from investors including Sequoia Capital India and East Ventures.
Also Read: Bibit snags US$30M to expand its robo-advisory platform in Indonesia
While Ajaib has long-term plans to expand regionally, its focus for the near future would be capturing the Indonesian market, where it sees “plenty of opportunities”.
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Image Credit: Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
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