Astra Group Partners with WeLab to Establish a Fintech Lending Company Named AWDA

Astra Group, through its investment arm Sedaya Multi Investama (SMI), with p2p lending company from Hong Kong and China WeLab, founded a fintech lending joint venture named Astra WeLab Digital Arta (AWDA). It is Astra's attempt to fill the gap of fintech lending industry in Indonesia.

The launching of AWDA, Wed (9/5), was attended by Astra International's management, Astra Financial's subsidiaries, Financial Service Authority (OJK), and WeLab representatives. AWDA becomes the eleventh company under Astra Financial, a company engaged in financial services.

Suparno Djasmin, Astra International Director explained, SMI has 60% of AWDA shares while WeLab owns the remaining 40%. Both are committed to increasing the capital deposit up to $21 million (around Rp315 billion) in order to support AWDA business in the future. In terms of operation, AWDA will be fully under FIF Group, Astra's investment arm.

"AWDA is a collaboration of two powers, with Astra dominating the automotive and financial industry, also WeLab having the innovative financial product can boost up the financial inclusion," he explained.

According to Djasmin, Astra partners with WeLab because they have expertise in fintech lending, in terms of innovation and technology. WeLab business has been operating in Hong Kong and China with the total customers of 30 million.

Simon Loong, WeLab's CEO and Founder added, WeLab has been eyeing Indonesia since 2016 by studying its market condition. As the conclusion, Indonesia has a similar condition to China in its previous years. Indonesia has become the third market for WeLabs penetration after China in 2014.

"On our side, there will be knowledge transfer for AWDA local talents. We'll also develop two products we've previously mastered, individual and corporate lending."

AWDA business plan

At the same occassion, AWDA introduces the availability of the Maucash app. It's currently available for Android. Rina Apriana, AWDA's President Director explained, Maucash has two lending products, Maucepat and Mauringan.

Maucepat provides lending from Rp1million to Rp3.5 million within 10-30 days tenor. Mauringan provides Rp2 million to Rp8 million with longer tenor of 3-6 months.

"We specifically targeting young people who familiar with the technology for Maucash customers. They can get an easy access for loans and hopefully meet their expectation," she explained.

This year, AWDA will market their products in sequence through FIF group network. There are 12 target cities, six are in Java and the rest are outside the island. In the early stage, AWDA is expected to acquire 5 thousand customers.

"Next, we expect to grow exponentially upon the ecosystem synergy from Astra Financial or Astra Group," Djasmin added.

Similar to other p2p lending players, Apriana explained the lending source will be from two sources, either from internal (Astra Group) or external (institutional investor and individual investors).

Currently, individual investors is not able to invest in Maucash. AWDA is still observing the right model to be implemented.

Before the official launching, AWDA has acquired the registration license from OJK and Kominfo for electronic-based service providers.

– Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian