Cermati Scores Series C Funding Led by MDI Ventures; It's Now a Holding Company

Financial product aggregator startup Cermati announced an undisclosed series C funding led by MDI Ventures, through the Centauri Fund. Also participated in this round the previous investors which led the series B round in 2018, Djarum Group through Central Capital Ventura (CCV).

The fresh funds is said to be used to develop products and technology, recruit new talents, and provide new services with the embedded fintech strategy. Along with MDI Ventures, CFG will synergize with the Telkom Group network to develop financial products.

In today's official statement (5/5), MDI Ventures' CEO, Donald Wihardja expressed his enthusiasm for the synergy between Cermati and Telkom in developing products that can provide financial access to 150 million telecommunication network users and hundreds of fintech uses throughout Telkom's network. "This hold the potential to play an important role in accelerating Indonesia's financial inclusion," Donald said.

On this occasion, also introducing Cermati as a holding company named Cermati Fintech Group (CFG) which oversees a number of business verticals, Cermati.com (financial product aggregator), Cermati Protect (insurtech), and Indodana (fintech lending). CFG leverages big data and AI technology to serve the underserved in Indonesia by developing microfinance and insurance products.

Separately reached by DailySocial, Cermati's Co-Founder & CEO, Andhy Koesnandar explained, CFG is the company's vehicle to accelerate financial inclusion in Indonesia. He believes that by using technology and working with large ecosystem partners, he can reach more underbanked people and get acquainted with financial products which previously not engaged with banking and insurance institutions.

"Since 2018 we have started to develop the micro insurance and micro finance business to be able to reach a wider Indonesian community," he said.

Cermati's flagship product is a financial product aggregator that has been operating since 2015. Andhy said the product has successfully enriched Cermati's experience in developing digital onboarding products for banking partners, insurance and other financial institutions, through the components of API, Fraud Detection, Credit Scoring, and e- KYC which has become the standard in banking. "This experience provides capital for us to continue to develop new business lines at CFG."

Amid the pandemic, without any specific details, Cermati has captured the public's enthusiasm for digital financial services, which also increased as many people migrated to digital services for all activities, including their financial needs.

In terms of insurtech, Cermati Protect has now collaborated with more than 30 insurance company partners. The insurance products also vary, ranging from health insurance, vehicles and also micro insurance products that are distributed through big e-commerce players such as Shopee, Bukalapak, Blibli, Tiket and so on.

"Particularly for this micro product, we are working with our partners to build products that are suitable for the context of transactions with low prices starting from Rp1,000 to help people benefit from insurance at very affordable prices."

Meanwhile, Indodana has distributed BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) products to various e-commerce players. One of them is through the Djarum Group, Tiket.com and Blibli. Indodana is more focused on targeting consumers without access to credit card. Both Cermati Protect and Indodana are registered and licensed by the OJK.

–Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian