PT Mercato Digital Asia as the parent company of PT Star Mercato Capitale — the owner of Tanamduit — has received US$3 million from RND Kapital, the company announced on Tuesday.

“The funds will be used to expand our business, hire the best talent and also for capital expenditure,” Muhammad Hanif, Tanamduit director of business development, said on Tuesday.

With the fresh funds, Hanif said the company planned to enhance partnerships with more e-commerce platforms and fund managers in order to expand its customer base.

Previously, it had collaborated with peer-to-peer lending firm PT Investree Radhika Jaya (Investree). It will again introduce new partnerships with e-commerce platforms, he mentioned.

Since its founding in 2017, the investment portal claimed to have 8,000 customers using its platform. Toward the end of this year, Tanamduit targets at least 40,000 people to join its platform, both from retail and institutional investors.

In Indonesia, besides Tanamduit, there are other digital investment platforms that offer consumers similar services for selling mutual funds online such as Bareksa and Invisee.

These companies see the opportunity for offering investment vehicles, especially mutual funds, to Indonesian consumers, considering that the country has a big population of 260 million people with low financial literacy.

From 600,000 people in Indonesia, only 0.25 percent have invested in mutual funds. This is a big difference compared to neighboring country Malaysia with 40 percent and Thailand at 30 percent in the beginning of 2018.

To set itself apart from its competitors, Tanamduit has been trying to make its app more user-friendly, for example, by allowing users to easily see the risk profile of the mutual funds that they invested in.

Tanamduit aspires to provide complete wealth management services in the future, aiming to give its users services that banks are still unable to offer.

“Other than that, we also don’t want to put 20 to 30 fund managers and many products on our platform. Instead, we only pick several fund managers with selected mutual fund products,” CEO of PT Mercato Digital Asia, Indra Suryawan, told reporters during a media briefing in Jakarta.

A limited number of fund managers and products were meant to ensure that its target consumers — who are novice customers — will not get confused when choosing among many options.

The firm has collaborated with eight investment managers, comprising Bahana TCW Investment Management, Batavia Prosperindo Aset Manajemen, BNP Paribas Investment Partners, CIMB-Principal Asset Management, Mandiri Manajemen Investasi, Manulife Aset Manajemen Indonesia, Pinnacle Persada Investama, Sucor Asset Management and Trimegah Asset Management.

By the end of this year, it aims to collaborate with total of 10 fund managers, Hanif said. With its business expansion strategy, Tanamduit is optimistic it can have assets under management of Rp 100 billion, from Rp 20 billion at present.

Tanamduit was founded by three people: Indra Suryawan, Rini Hapsari and Ferry Aprilianto. It has received a license as a mutual fund selling agent (APERD) by the Financial Services Authority (OJK).

Popular

UN says initial findings show roadside blast killed Indonesian peacekeepers

Indonesia approves 580 million tonne coal production plan, signals output boost

Indonesia rations fuel as prices soar over Mideast war