Akulaku to Expand to Kalimantan and Sumatra in 2019

Akulaku, a financial startup, is ready to expand to Kalimantan and Sumatra next year to increase business penetration in Indonesia. Currently, the service is available only in Java.

"Furthermore, we are to expand offline merchants from Jabodetabek to all around Java, therefore, people can easily use our service," Sandy Chen, Akulaku Indonesia's Head of Business Development said (11/6).

The massive expansion is still on due to Series C investment worth of Rp1 trillion which was announced last October.

In the same occasion, Akulaku also announced a new feature called Kredit Offline after first introduced on August 2018. This feature was developed by Akulaku Indonesia subsidiary (PT Akulaku Silvrr Indonesia) in multifinance, Akulaku Finance Indonesia.

Akulaku is claimed to reach more than 20,000 offline merchants in Jabodetabek. It is to be expanded throughout Java by the end of this year. The merchants are varied, besides grocery stores. There are also food stalls, coffee shops, cafes, and so on.

Chen revealed the company will expand merchants to the retails with a broader network to improve the use of Kredit Offline feature. Only, he refused to reveal further details on this matter because the discussion is still ongoing.

Currently, the company is still in the stage of introducing a new feature to the public, many of marketing gimmicks are offered, such as 50% discount for all transaction in shops and zero percent installment valid through the end of this year.

The latest feature, in his opinion, has the main objective to facilitate shopping on merchants without disturbing daily cashflow. There is no administration cost for registered merchants. In fact, they will be equipped with Moka Pos in cashier to help recording report and online payment.

One of the coffee shop merchants attending the event mentioned the transaction level after joining for two months was stable sales in a full month. Previously, transactions are increasing only at the beginning of the month.

It is claimed that Akulaku has 15 million registered users and 2 million of those are Akulaku credit users.

– Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian