P2P lending platform Taralite raises US$6.3 million from Japan’s SBI Group

vivian

May 15, 2017

Taralite, a Peer-to-Peer (P2P ) lending platform based in Jakarta today announced that it has raised a funding round from Japanese fintech conglomerate SBI Group.

SBI Group is considered the pioneer of fintech in Japan and hold the country’s largest online securities trading company. The company is affiliated with pure-play online bank, several type of insurance companies, biotechnology business, and a venture capital arm which operates a US$300 million fintech-focused fund.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the total commitment for the round is US$6.3 million, including the funds for Taralite’s lending services.

The funds will be used to build a world-class R&D team in order to build an algorithm for its future plan to become a one-stop shop. In the near future, the startup plans to roll out new products and services such as insurance, revolving loan, and credit card services.

Taralite was formerly known as Wedlite, one of Indonesia’s first fintech platforms which started out as a lending platform that finances personal life events such as weddings and Haji pilgrimage.

But now, the startup has evolved into a platform that provides working capital to online merchants. It offers a swift application process and affordable loans with interest rates starting from 0.99 percent per month.

The startup was also one of the startups incubated in the second batch of Global Entrepreneurship Program Indonesia (GEPI), and has raised an undisclosed seed funding round from angel investment network ANGIN.

Since 2015, the startup claims that it has served more than 1000 borrowers with a customer retention rate of more than 70 percent.

To achieve this, the startup has provided new products in the pipeline through partnerships with various online marketplaces and booking platforms such as Tokopedia, Bukalapak, Lazada, Matahari Mall, and Airy Rooms.

“We are doing what Capital One and Ant Financials did a few years ago,” said Taralite’s CEO Abraham Viktor. “They expanded from just one product offering into a one stop shop for the customers they are serving. We want to follow their footsteps and focus on serving the underserved segment in Indonesia.”

Taralite also cited United States-based Capital One as one of their inspiration to achieve their long-term goal.

vivian

Vivian Foo is a reporter who writes about Southeast Asia’s technology and startup space. The entry point which led her to write about the startup ecosystem was her fascination of the dot-com boom. She is taking a deep dive into how the entrepreneurial mindset works and hopes to share the insights, innovation, and stories of the startups with her readers.