OVO Partners with Bank Mandiri to Boost New Subcribers

OVO, Lippo Group's fintech and loyalty platform, announces a business partnership with Bank Mandiri to fulfill its ambition in facilitating financial inclusion in Indonesia.

Mandiri's e-cash, e-money, debit, and credit card customers can do all transactions at OVO's merchant partners. Similar terms apply to OVO's users to increase cashless transaction growth for both companies.

However, the implementation won't be available immediately. It will be available by mid-year or the third quarter of 2018.

"Therefore, Bank Mandiri's EDC machine will be accepting OVO's transaction. Moreover, it will be distributed to the merchants which yet to own EDC machine. We'll [OVO and Bank Mandiri] do co-marketing [effort] so all promos can be enjoyed by customers from both companies," Adrian Suherman, OVO's CEO, said (3/29).

Furthermore, OVO will be accepting Mandiri service in its app and making use of Mandiri's network such as ATM and Mandiri Online as the supporting infrastructure.

Users can top-up and withdraw OVO's cash balance through Bank Mandiri. There will also be offerings for the credit facility, investment products, and other features.

"As the leading banking company in Indonesia, we always embrace new innovations. In this digital era, working with the technology company is one way to increase interoperability," Rico Usthavia Frans, Bank Mandiri's Director of Technology and Operations, said.

Bank Mandiri's EDC machine is claimed to have been distributed to 250 thousand merchants, while OVO has around 23 thousand merchants in 209 cities throughout Indonesia. OVO has 9.5 million customers with 60% are women between 23-35 years old.

OVO's next step is to partner with fintech companies and other bankings to improve acceptance in making transaction anywhere.

Aiming for 20 million users

Besides partnering with Bank Mandiri, OVO also initiates some new features to give added value to customers. By the end of this year, OVO's users should reach 15-20 million. Its current number is 9.5 million.

"Honestly, the initial target of users have been achieved. Therefore, we'll aim for a higher number by the end of this year, for 15-29 million users."

Suherman said that the increasing number of users can be observed from parking promo in Lippo Group's malls. In addition, many users are interested in the redeem point program through the app.

In terms of product innovation, there will be many improvements to be introduced. Recently, OVO Invest is available for mutual funds transaction. The company partners with Cipta Dana for money market mutual funds. It's currently in beta version.

It completes OVO's initial products consist of OVO Points as a loyalty program, OVO Cash as electronic money for all transactions. Customers can use OVO app to top up, transfer, pay bills, and for insurance.

– Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian