- KOKU aims to partner with Non-Bank Financial Intermediaries (NBFIs) including non-bank remittance companies and liquidity providers in Indonesia to provide cheaper, quicker and digital-first remittance services to their customers
- Expansion into Indonesia signifies KOKU’s plan to establish presence throughout the Southeast Asia region
JAKARTA, INDONESIA & SINGAPORE, 13 AUGUST 2019 – Singapore based fintech KOKU has announced its plans to expand into Indonesia. Its regional expansion follows from KOKU’s successful US$2 million pre-series A funding round earlier this year, which was led by Decent Capital, an investment firm started by Mr. Jason Zeng, who had co-founded Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings. KOKU works with Non-Bank Financial Intermediaries (NBFIs), building foreign exchange (FX) technology solutions. It is already exploring initial projects with NBFI partners in Indonesia.
KOKU views Indonesia as an increasingly promising market with a high migrant population and increasing inbound and outbound remittance. Through technology, there is immense potential for Indonesia to grow it’s remittance industry as well as contribute to the growth of the region’s e-payments and money transfer capabilities.
According to the World Bank, Indonesia’s economy has experienced tremendous improvements and growth, partly due to the contributions of its remittance industry. Examples of this growth include double-digit growth of 24.7 percent in 2018, and a recorded transaction value of US$8.9 billion of foreign exchange by migrant workers in 2017. Indonesia is also considered as one of the top ten largest remittance recipients in Asia in 2018, per the Asian Development Bank’s estimates.
“Indonesia is uniquely fragmented, and for us this presents great opportunity to contribute to the growth of the country’s financial capaibilty as well as the region’s. We offer technology that doesn’t silo growth, but enables our partners to grow to their strengths, whilst at the same time leaving room to collaborate and tap on the strength of others. KOKU envisions greater growth opportunities for the industry by leveraging technology to deliver financial inclusion and change the way of life for Indonesians,” said Calvin Goh, Founder and CEO of KOKU.
As part of KOKU’s strategic plans to expand into Indonesia, KOKU will move to collaborate with partners who possess expertise of the local market. These partners include e-wallet players, micro-lending and payment companies, remittance and money exchange businesses. Partnerships with these NBFIs will be centered around the integration of KOKU’s technology into existing operations – ensuring that partners have the ability to go-to-market quickly and without disruption to their business. In addition, KOKU is potentially exploring opportunities to partner with local supermarkets and convenience stores, which will act as points of access to financial services, which will help the unbanked community move closers to financial inclusion.
“We’re extremely strategic in the way we approach our growth. Expansion into Indonesia will be very much dependant on engaging with the right partners. We want to ensure that our technology is localized to adhere to cultural needs and business needs.” he added.
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About KOKU
KOKU is a FX tech-enabler empowering non-bank money transfer operators. We do this by enabling them to easily ‘tech-up’ to provide cheaper, quicker and digital-first remittance and FX services to their customers globally.
Founded in 2016, KOKU is backed by a team of investors from Decent Capital who share our vision of driving category growth among non-bank financial institutions through business innovation and technology.
For more information, please visit www.koku.io.
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