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South Korean fintech startups eye expansion into Indonesia
The acceleration program, called the Shinhan Future’s Lab Indonesia, is the second opened by SFG outside of South Korea
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South Korea’s Shinhan Financial Group, in cooperation with coworking space company CoHive, launched on Monday a startup acceleration program called the Shinhan Future’s Lab Indonesia.
S
outh Korean fintech startups are seeking to expand into Indonesia by forging partnerships with local startups through an acceleration program carried out by South Korea’s Shinhan Financial Group (SFG) in cooperation with a coworking space company, CoHive.
The acceleration program, called the Shinhan Future’s Lab Indonesia, was officially launched in Jakarta on Monday. It is the second global acceleration program opened by SFG outside of South Korea after Vietnam’s Lab, which was opened in 2016.
Shinhan Bank president Jin Ok-dong said that the launch was part of the bank’s commitment to actively support Indonesian and South Korean startups to expand their businesses overseas. “Shinhan has been operating in Indonesia since 2016 and we highly value the Indonesian market potential for Korean startups,” said Jin. He also said that Shinhan Future’s Lab Indonesia also supports the goal of the Indonesian government to be the startup hub of Southeast Asia.
SFG digital strategy head Cho Young-suh said Monday that the Indonesia Lab would consist of two batches per year, during which four to five Indonesian startups will be joining the program in each of the batch. “We started to recruit Indonesian startups in the first quarter of this year. So, we will have some eight to 10 startups by the end of the year,” Cho said.
Meanwhile, the Vietnam Lab started in 2016 and has one cohort every year, from which 11 Vietnamese startups have been developed in the last three years. “We also sent eight South Korean startups [to Vietnam] and connected them with business partners in Vietnam,” he said.
Meanwhile in Indonesia, about four South Korean startups are to join the first cohort, including peer-to-peer lender Peoplefund and robo-advisor fintech company SBCN. They are to open their offices at CoHive, the largest coworking space company in Indonesia, which would also act as the headquarters of the Lab and is designed to be the hub for innovative ideas, business insights, capacity development and investor networks.
“We will help them to connect with potential business partners in Indonesia,” Cho said, adding that the Indonesia Lab is expected to have eight to 10 South Korean startups by the end of the year.
