KoinWorks, an Indonesia-based financial platform for SMEs, has raised US$108 million in Series C funding led by MDI Ventures. The round included US$43 million in equity and US$65 million in debt capital for the working capital loans KoinWorks provides to its customers.
The round brings KoinWorks’ total raised to US$180 million. Existing investors who returned for its latest round include Quona Capital, Triodos Investment Management, Saison Capital, ACV and East Ventures. The new funds will be used for hiring about 400 new employees and scaling KoinWorks’ latest suite of products, SME Neobank.
KoinWorks is headquartered in Jakarta, with holding in Singapore and tech offices in Yogyakarta, India and Vietnam. It was originally created to help SMEs, which are often turned away by traditional financial institutions, get access to working capital. Since then, it has also developed a comprehensive platform of financial tools to help its customers, including e-commerce vendors and social commerce sellers, increase their sales.
TechCrunch first profiled KoinWorks in 2019 when it raised US$12 million for its lending platform. Demand increased as more businesses went online during the Covid-19 pandemic and the startup says its user base tripled to 1.5 million customers, and a waitlist of 100,000 SMEs who are being onboarded onto its new financial software. Co-founder and executive chairman Willy Arifin said monthly loan disbursements have also tripled to nearly US$50 million and revenue had quadrupled.
KoinWorks focuses on SMEs that are underserved by traditional financial institutions and may not have a bank account or credit cards. On the platform, users can create an online bank account and card, borrow working capital, and access accounting, point-of-sale, early wage access and human resources management systems tailored for small businesses.
Arifin said that since KoinWorks’ monthly disbursement rate reached US$50 million a month, its take rate has grown enough that the company became cash flow positive earlier this year, and its non-performing loan (NPL) percentage is lower than 2%.
He says banks serving traditional SMEs have at least double KoinWorks’ NPL. “As many as 20% of businesses shifted their sales channels offline to online during the pandemic, and 89% of businesses now use online channels to sell their products and services.”
Over the last three years, KoinWorks’ competitors have grown to include other neobanks and startups that started out as accounting software but are expanding to include working capital loans and other financial services. Two notable examples included rivals BukuWarung and BukuKas, both of which have raised significant rounds of funding.
