FUNDtastic Aims for Millennials Through Wealth Platform Branding

Market enthusiasm for online investment platforms continues to grow. This is visible through a growing number of similar platforms offering diverse business models and portfolios.

One of them is FUNDtastic which also participated in encouraging investment growth in Indonesia, especially for millennials. Most people are not aware that this startup has been established since 2016.

There are four founders, including Harry Hartono (CEO), Franky Chandra (CIO), Medwin Susilo (CTO), and Eri Primaria (founder of PT Nusantara Sejahtera Investama).

Low awareness for investment platform

Although it was founded in 2016, FUNDtastic's platform was launched in 2019. During a virtual media visit session with DailySocial, Franky revealed throughout that period, the company conducted market research related to market perceptions of financial products offered through digital platforms.

"During our research since 2017, we saw that the Indonesian market was not ready to accept the investment platform. Then, people were more aware of the e-commerce and payment platforms. These are popular platforms that time," Franky said.

In Franky's opinion, Indonesian people's awareness of online investment platforms is quite low. The community considered still confused in choosing the right investment product. This is a challenge for companies when developing the FUNDtastic platform.

As cited from the Financial Services Authority (OJK) in 2019, he said the number of investors in Indonesia was only around 2-3 million. In fact, there are 50 million people who are considered potential investors with income record of more than IDR5 million per month and are able to set aside their money for investment.

This is quite low percentage compared to Malaysia, where the number of investors has reached 67 percent. In addition, millennials in Indonesia are rapidly adapting to digital products. The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) recorded there were 12.6 million millennial workers in Indonesia as of 2019.

"Our pain point in developing FUNDtastic was an access to a user-friendly investment platform, difficulty choosing a portfolio, and finding a platform that suited their lifestyle," Franky said.

Present as wealth apps

For this reason, he continued, the company initially positioned itself as a wealth products platform, not investment platforms. This platform is designed to be a digital hub that connects stakeholders in the financial ecosystem, ranging from customers, advisors, corporations, investment product providers, third-party platforms, to regulators.

"We want to present lifestyle-related and expert products in this business so that customers feel comfortable. Our products also go through a curation process. Therefore, we position them as wealth apps, not investment apps. We want them to have a journey through this application," he said.

Just like similar digital platforms, the registration process and KYC are fully performed on the FUNDtastic application. This platform is also supported by AI technology to recommend the right portfolio according to customer needs and income. Likewise, payment options, ranging from virtual accounts, bank transfers, digital payments, and auto debit.

FUNDtastic business development

Currently, there are only four services offered by FUNDtastic, including FUNDtastic Direct, FUNDtastic for Advisors, FUNDtastic Biz, FUNDtastic for Platforms. Meanwhile, investment products offered are mutual funds, gold, to Government Securities (SBN).

Franky revealed some ongoing business development plans to expand its product portfolio. One of them is the insurance and p2p lending products for the near future. Currently, his team is in the process of integrating with insurance and p2p lending partners.

In addition, the company is also developing new features, allowing customers to record expenses and income. Franky said that this feature will be integrated directly with the customer's internet banking.

"For us, [this feature] is our strength in the investment platform market. Even later this feature will be related to our micro investing products. Currently, we are still exploring the process of working with several large banks, one of which is BCA," he added.

–Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian