Bibit Bags Over 1,1 Trillion Rupiah Funding Led by GIC

The wealthtech platform Bibit announced to secure over $80 million (more than 1,1 trillion Rupiah) funding in the latest round led by GIC Private Limited (GIC). Also participated in this round Prosus Ventures and other previous investors.

Previously, the news of GIC's involvement in Bibit has been circulating since February 2022. GIC is an investment fund institution of the Singapore government. Bukalapak and Bank Jago are part of its portfolios in Indonesia.

Bibit is to use the fresh funding for the launching of its latest product and services, technology development, talent hiring, and powering the education program in order to boost the investment penetration in Indonesia.

Bibit's Co-founder & CEO, Sigit Kouwagan said, the team believes that everyone has the rights of better future. Bibit is to facilitate Indonesian people to participate in the capital market and to achieve the financial goals through investing in the right way.

"We're very enthusiastic to welcome GIC as our new investor and very pleased to have other investors that have been loyal to support us for accelerating this mission," he said in the official statement, Wed (5/25).

Bibit has its debut in early 2019 after being acquired by Stockbit, a space for investors to share ideas about stock investing, news, and real-time information. The platform is designed as a mutual fund "robo-advisor" in Indonesia, helping investors to build portfolios according to their risk profile and investment objectives. Based on the data, 90% of Bibit users are millennial investors who previously had no experience in investing.

To date, Bibit is claimed to have millions of investors, mostly millennials and novice investors, in 500 cities in Indonesia to build investment portfolios based on their risk profile and financial goals in a safe, simple and easy way.

Over the past year, the company has recorded several achievements, including the launch of Stockbit Sekuritas, a fully online e-IPO feature that allows users to participate in the IPO process. In addition, Stockbit Academy was launched as a means for the public to learn stocks for free from experienced financial mentors. Also, the platform also selected by the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia as a Distribution Partner (Midis) of Selling Government Securities (SBN) in early 2022.

Based on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) and the Indonesian Central Securities Depository (KSEI), the number of mutual fund investors in Indonesia grew by 80.3% (YoY) from 4.41 million investors in April 2021 to 7.95 million in April. 2022.

Meanwhile, in the same period, the number of stock investors increased by 66.7% (YoY) and has reached 3.83 million investors. The growth was also due to the rising number of retail investors. Over half of these investors are claimed to use Bibit and Stockbit as investment applications. Despite the significant growth, the number of people who invest in the capital market is still below 4% of the total population.

Its closest competitor, Pluang, previously announced a $55 million funding round earlier this year led by Accel, followed by other investors, including Trung Nguyen, Andy Ho, Aleksander Leonard Larsen, and Jeffrey Zirlin (founder of Axie Infinity), BRI Ventures, Gold House, along with previous investors consisting of Square Peg, Go-Ventures, UOB Venture Management, and Openspace Ventures, and others.

In addition, Ajaib has officially become a unicorn after closing the $153 million series B funding round.

–Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian