Recently, a Y Combinator graduate startup “Ajaib“, founded by Anderson Sumarli, Yada Piyajomkwan, and Kevin Lee, acquires seed funding worth of $2.1 million (around 29.6 billion rupiah). It was from several investors include Y Combinator, SoftBank Ventures, former partner of Sequoia (WhatsApp investor), Alpha JWC, and Insignia Ventures.
Anderson Sumarli, Ajaib’s CEO said to DailySocial that the fresh funding is to be used for business development, such as recruiting new talents, developing product, and connected with users to gain more feedback.
“Seed funding is the most initial investment source for startup. It usually represents the first official cash earned from business or company to create more in market development and research. One of our seed funding accelerator is Y-Combinator and SoftBank,” he added.
Financial inclusion for all
Ajaib provides personal portfolio based on user’s risk profile. The platform allows account creation for savings and investment using certified financial manager. All portfolios are automatically supervised by Ajaib. The ongoing portfolio is mutual funds. Furthermore, Ajaib team is committed to add more investment options.
“Ajaib’s benefit is that we combine technology with human skill. I am one of those people who wants to invest but have no time to follow market development. It also happened to my friends, Ajaib presents as a solution for all,” Anderson said.
Ajaib doesn’t charge for its service, both for account creation, buying , selling, and switching cost. In terms of user convenience, Ajaib also has a license from OJK (Financial Services Authority) and partners with some banks and experienced fund managers in investing.
Ajaib has ambition with this fresh funding, to cover the Southeast Asia market by targeting 650 million people.
“Our vision is regional. We think this problem is quite common throughout the region. However, in the short and medium term, we’ll be focused on Indonesia first,” Yada Piyajomkwan, Ajaib’s CMO said.
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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian
