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Lendable bullish on SEA fintech, Pintek less keen on student financing

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In The Top Up this week, we look at Lendable’s investments in Southeast Asia and analyze the fo

In The Top Up this week, we look at Lendable’s investments in Southeast Asia and analyze the focus shift of Indonesia’s Pintek. [Read from your browser]( The Top Up 💵 Welcome to The Top Up! Delivered every fortnight via email and through the Tech in Asia website, this free newsletter breaks down the biggest stories and trends in fintech. If you’re not a subscriber, get access by [registering here](. Written by Budi Sutrisno Journalist Hello {NAME} When I was in my teens, I saw many women in my neighborhood grapple to make ends meet and constantly search for loan sharks to solve their financial problems. Nowadays, there are so many other options available that it makes me wonder how they would have benefitted if they had access to a financial platform instead. Today, companies like Amartha help improve financial inclusion in remote parts of Indonesia. The startup, which began as a microfinance provider in 2010 before transforming itself into a fintech firm in 2016, has channeled working capital to support the microenterprises of women across thousands of villages in Indonesia. Lendable, a global debt finance provider, is also on a mission to bring more gender equality into funding, prompting it to infuse US$50 million into Amartha in 2021. Amartha is among the Indonesian fintech firms to receive investments from Lendable, and we can certainly expect more deals as the latter is doubling down on Southeast Asia. In this week’s Big Story, my colleague Melissa discusses the reasons behind Lendable’s positive outlook on the region, which has shown resilience in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukraine conflict. She also observes how loss rates in Asia have gone down to pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile, for this week’s Hot Take, I dig into how another Indonesian lending platform, Pintek, has shifted its focus from student loans to business financing and what that says about the education fintech industry. -- Budi Note: ​​We're making some changes to this newsletter. Instead of being published weekly, The Top Up will be published every other week. Watch out for the next edition on March 22.  --------------------------------------------------------------- THE BIG STORY [Fresh off $110m raise, Lendable eyes ‘huge opportunity’ among SEA fintech firms]( The London-based debt financier has deployed approximately US$150 million to Southeast Asian fintech firms - such as Fazz and F88 - to date.  --------------------------------------------------------------- THE HOT TAKE  Indonesia turns out to be a complicated market for student financing Here’s what happened: - Pinduit Teknologi Indonesia (Pintek), an Indonesia-based fintech firm, recently [changed its focus]( from student loan services to business financing. - The company is now targeting financing for producers, distributors, suppliers, and retailers in the supply chain, as well as business financing based on purchase order documents or invoices. - Pintek was among a handful of players in the student financing sector in Indonesia, leaving behind competitors such as Cicil, Danacita, and DanaDidik. Here’s our take: When Tommy Yuwono founded Pintek in 2018, he [said]( the company would not offer long-term student loans because there’s no guarantee that its users would get a job immediately after graduation. However, with repayment tenures of only 24 months, user acquisition could be challenging when students are struggling to meet their basic needs. There is also a lack of awareness about the long-term implications of taking out student loans. “It’s a tricky decision,” according to a 22-year-old shopkeeper at Grand Indonesia who once contemplated applying for student loans to get a university degree. As he explained to Tech in Asia: “Should I incur such a large debt for the long-term gain of education or utilize the loan funds to fulfill my current needs?” This could be why [KoinPintar]( the educational loan unit of peer-to-peer lender KoinWorks, initiated a 10-year term student loan [program]( in 2019, having previously offered loans with tenures ranging from three to 24 months when it first launched in 2016. In general, loan tenures in the sector still range from [two to three years](. Student financing is not a jampacked industry in the country to begin with. Apart from KoinPintar, there are now only three other players in the sector: Cicil, Danacita, and DanaDidik. According to information on company websites, [Pintek]( has 153 active borrowers while [Cicil]( and [Danacita]( respectively have 4,900 and 12,500. Those numbers are significantly low, considering that Indonesia has [24 million K-12 students]( and [9 million college students](. Pintek also lags behind the other two players in terms of user accumulation, getting only 3,400 customers since its inception. Meanwhile, Cicil has had 59,500 customers and Danacita 19,700 to date, which shows the latter has had the best user retention among the three. See also: [Behind the rise of Google Classroom in Indonesia]( Tellingly, KoinWorks has not relied heavily on education fintech. Among its numerous other ventures is KoinBisnis, a loan product aimed at MSMEs that [disbursed]( nearly 2.5 trillion rupiah (US$162 million) throughout 2020. KoinWorks also garnered more than 550,000 business users in the same period, but it’s unclear just how many users KoinPintar has. The scant number of users and Pintek’s new focus are signs that Indonesia’s education fintech industry didn’t live up to its promise of becoming [a billion-dollar opportunity](. There were earlier indications that Pintek was moving away from the sector. In 2021, it ventured into embedded financing solutions, providing access to funding for educational SMEs, such as principals, distributors, and large resellers. Amid the pandemic, when millions of students lost access to education, Pintek offered [an instant service]( with tenures of 30 days and 90 days for loans up to 5 million rupiah (US$325), much lower than the maximum [500 million rupiah (US$32,500)]( offered by its regular program. However, students seeking smaller amounts might as well consider general fintech players with similar repayment schemes. Besides, there is also competition from government-sponsored initiatives, such as scholarship programs that provide grants to thousands of underprivileged students yearly. Several universities have also started offering free tuition to students who meet certain academic and socio-economic criteria. -- Budi Currency converted from Indonesian rupiah to US dollar: US$1=15,391 rupiah.  --------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW Also check out Tech in Asia’s coverage of the fintech scene [here](. 1️⃣ [GoTo affirms compliance despite low repayment ratio for GoPayLater]( Indonesia-based Findaya, which collaborated with super app GoJek to offer GoPayLater, has seen a relatively low repayment ratio for its 90-day payment platform. 2️⃣ [Indonesia’s LinkAja posts 30% revenue jump in 2022]( The fintech firm’s operational expenses decreased by more than 50% in the same period. 3️⃣ [Richard Li’s FWD to file for IPO for third time: report]( The pan-Asian insurance firm’s latest listing is expected to be held in Hong Kong in the second quarter of 2023, Bloomberg reported. 4️⃣ [500 Global-backed Monnai raises $6.5m, tapping into SEA for growth]( The US-based firm’s series A funding round was led by Tiger Global. 5️⃣ [Airwallex secures payments license in China]( The Hong Kong-based startup obtained the license via its acquisition of a Chinese information and online payment services company.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  FYI [Sea Group’s triple win: how it pulled off a stunning reversal]( The tech giant did more than just making cuts to its sales and marketing budget to turn its Q4 2022 results around.  --------------------------------------------------------------- That’s it for this edition - we hope you liked it! Do also check out previous issues of the newsletter [here](. Not your cup of tea? You can unsubscribe from this newsletter by going to your “edit profile” page and choosing that option in our preferences center. In the meantime, if you have any feedback or ideas, feel free to get in touch with Terence, our editor-in-chief, at terence@techinasia.com. See you in a fortnight! P.S. Don't miss out on the biggest tech news and analysis. Add newsletter@techinasia.com to your address book, contacts, or safe sender list. Or simply move us into your inbox. Too many emails? Switch to a different frequency or get new content through our [preference center]( or [unsubscribe](. You can also break our hearts and remove yourself from all Tech in Asia emails over [here](  Copyright © 2023 Tech in Asia, All rights reserved. 63 Robinson Road, Singapore 068894

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