<article><p>After a few months of talks, it seems that Ant Financial has finally decided to <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/indonesia-akulaku-seriesd-117200/"><strong>put some money into Akulaku</strong></a>, a fintech lending company with most of its business in Indonesia but has recently branched out to Vietnam &amp; the Philippines.</p></article>

<p>After a few months of talks, it seems that Ant Financial has finally decided to <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/indonesia-akulaku-seriesd-117200/"><strong>put some money into Akulaku</strong></a>, a fintech lending company with most of its business in Indonesia but has recently branched out to Vietnam &amp; the Philippines.</p>
<p>The US$40 million that Ant Financial is putting in will value the company at US$450m. This came in quick succession after the previous round led by Beijing-based Finup.</p>
<h3>Disruptor or aggressor</h3>
<p>Akulaku is probably the best-known disruptor in Indonesia’s fintech space. It started off as Silvrr offering remittance services to overseas workers in Hong Kong. As the fintech lending in China picked up, Silvrr pivoted into instalment for electronics and chose Indonesia as its market. Of course, the name also needed to be changed, to very nicely local sounding Akulaku.</p>
<p>As a Chinese company, Akulaku is seen by many as a disruptor in Indonesia’s nascent fintech lending space. Its tactics were aggressive and it obtained a multi-finance licence through acquisition.</p>
<p>It grew fast. Of course, for any fintech lending company to sustain fast growth, it needs lending capital, which explains why Akulaku needed to not only raise more and more rounds of funding but also plug in many other sources of leverage.</p>
<h3>Will Akulaku prevail?</h3>
<p>In comparison, its main rival (if it considers so), Kredivo, is more prudent in its tactics (and thus grew more slowly in comparison).</p>
<p>Only time will tell which model will prevail, but our take is that the two will converge, and whichever company that adapts faster will own a bigger share of the market.</p>
<p>And the market is big enough for multiple players to thrive – in China, a number of credit instalment companies are publicly listed. However, in terms of scale, most of them pale in front of Huabei &amp; Jiebei, virtual credit and micro-cash loan products offered by Ant Financial.</p>
<h3>Ant investments</h3>
<p>Talking about Ant Financial, their strategy in Southeast Asia is taking shape. Alipay is accepted across tourist spots in multiple countries; Lazada’s Hellopay has been taken over by Alipay, and it has invested in or built JVs with e-wallet companies in multiple countries.</p>
<p>In addition, using the usual Alibaba tactic, it also scans through the market to see which player that has a potential in any of the consumer fintech sectors, and makes investments in them. We are talking about Mdaq, BluePay, now Akulaku, and probably more to come.</p>
<p><strong>This post <a href="https://thelowdown.momentum.asia/ant-financial-puts-us40m-in-akulaku/">originally appeared</a> on The Low Down blog. It has been republished here with permission from Momentum Works.</strong></p>


Ant Financial has finally decided to put about $40 million into Akulaku, a fintech lending company with most of its business in Indonesia.

Guest post: Ant Financial puts $40m in Akulaku

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