The startup developer of the fintech API platform, Ayoconnect, today (01/9) announced to close a pre-series B funding round of $10 million or equivalent to 143 billion Rupiah. This news also confirms the information we previously received regarding Ayoconnect’s fundraising in early August.
A number of investors participated in this round, including Mandiri Capital Indonesia, Patamar Capital, and angel investors including Ilham Akbar Habibie, Paul Bernard, Jeff Lin, and several others. In addition, there are some previous investors, including BRI Ventures, AC Ventures, Kakaku, and Finch Capital.
The fresh funds will be focused on increasing company’s growth, recruitment, and product development. With this new investment, the company has raised $15 million in total. Furthermore, according to the sources, the estimated valuation of the company has reached around $34 million.
“Ayoconnect is now one of Indonesia’s few companies receiving investment from the two largest banks in Indonesia, Bank Mandiri and Bank BRI. Their presence as investors is a big support in our efforts to build an infrastructure layer that allows interoperability between various Indonesian companies providing financial services, such as financial institutions, fintech, and startups,” Ayoconnect’s Co-Founder & CEO, Jakob Rost said.
Ayoconnect was founded in 2016 by Jacob with his two colleagues Chiragh Kirpalani (Co-Founder and COO) and Adi Vora (Co-Founder and CTO) with a focus on building API-based solutions for bill payments and other digital products. The company currently provides API services for various needs, which they refer to as Full Stack APIs (including: Financial APIs, Bill APIs, Open Finance APIs, and Insights APIs).
To date, Ayoconnect claims to have more than 100 API clients, while connecting more than 1000 companies through its API network.
Fintech’s new era through open finance
Fintech services in the form of APIs are starting to develop, forming an open finance ecosystem for a more accessible financial system. Aside from Ayoconnect, there are several other players in Indonesia that offer similar solutions with a unique focus, from Brick, Brankas, Finantier, and others.
This model allows application developers to insert various financial technology capabilities more efficiently, instead of developing their own which would be time-consuming and expensive, not to mention having to ensure compliance with regulatory standards.
The business potential is getting interesting to observe, especially since Bank Indonesia has launched the national Open API standard. According to BI’s Governor, Perry Warjiyo, the existence of the Payment Open API standardization can create a healthy, competitive and innovative payment system industry, therefore, it can provide payment system services that are efficient, safe, and reliable to the public.
With API solutions, these fintechs can reach various groups, ranging from digital companies to banking. The Autobilling API service from Ayoconnect, for example, has been used by Bank Mandiri to boost their credit card performance. Enables customers to make payments for various billing transactions automatically at more than 200 merchants from 8 product categories.
“Ayoconnect’s vision to democratize open finance in Indonesia has convinced us to take a role in this investment. We’ve formed our trust with Ayoconnect from its long experience in building APIs, the ability to collaborate with various leading companies, as well as its continuous efforts to enter the open banking business segment,” Mandiri Capital Indonesia’s CEO, Eddi Danusaputro said.
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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian
