Singapore-based Monk’s Hill Ventures has invested in CekAja, a financial products and services comparison website based in Indonesia.
An industry source told DEALSTREETASIA of the development, although the investment value was not made clear. Monk’s Hill did not comment on this when contacted via email.
CekAja was set up in 2013, along with several similar websites that mushroomed to tap into the growing middle class of Indonesia.
The website collaborates with many notable banks and insurers to offer extensive financial options for its users. The range of financial products CekAja compares are personal loans, credit cards, deposits, and syariah, a deposit that follows Islamic principles. Other services like mortgages, vehicle financing, vehicle insurance, property insurance, life insurance, and electronics insurance have also been rolled out.
The website is founded under Compare88 Group Pte Ltd, a financial and insurance portal which also started Philippines-based eCompareMo.
It is believed that the Monk’s Hill, an early stage venture capital firm, is also pushing for a fund close in the next two months.
The VC’s website lists 38 digital companies its team has invested in and built. Among them are Lazada, Reebonz, Zalora, FoodPanda and Match.com.
Monk’s Hill Ventures launched a $80 million venture fund in May 2014, with a team of seasoned entrepreneurs focused on early stage technology startups across Asia.
The partnership comprises Monk’s Hill managing directors Ong Peng Tsin, Lim Kuo-Yi, partner Stefan Jung, and special advisor Thomas Clayton.
In a December Tech In Asia report , Jung confirmed that the firm had, at that point, an outlay of nearly $100 million to be invested into Series A and B deals, especially in emerging markets like Indonesia.
The firm has also set up an office in the capital of Southeast Asia’s most populous country. It’s Jakarta based team has also addressed a few startup conferences in the country.
The partners of Monk’s Hill Ventures have built numerous Silicon Valley and Asian VC-backed companies over the past two decades, with operating experience in all of the major countries like China, Japan, India and Indonesia.
The firm viewed Southeast Asia to be ripe for an explosion of leading technology companies, driven by a confluence of favorable macroeconomic conditions, exciting talent and available capital: it said in a press statement.
