Malaysia-based iMoney, which has already had its branches opened in six countries so far, including Indonesia, has just closed a $4 million of funding from Australia-based iSelect Limited. By this funding, iSelect Limited acquired 20.1% of iMoney’s shares.
In Indonesia, iMoney has established itself as the most visited platform of its segment, beats a fleet of local competitors, including KreditAja, CekAja, and HaloMoney. Interestingly, the gap between them is considerably wide.
Ching Wei Lee, iMoney’s Group Founder and CEO, told us that the funding would be seriously allocated to push their operation in Indonesia. He emphasized that Indonesia is an extremely important market for iMoney. “One third of the traffic that iMoney Group gains derives from Indonesia,” Lee said. The monthly traffic growth percentage, which almost always reaches two digits, shows the picture of this promising market even clearer.
A report by Citibank in the middle of 2014 showed that the Indonesian people’s financial intelligence has grown significantly these past two years. As a matter of fact, this level of financial awareness, something that Citibank calls the FinQ (Financial Quotient), grew from 57,7 in 2012 to 60,7 in 2013.
This significant surge may refer to the increasing number of smart and wealthy people in Indonesia, with higher intellectual and income. BCG also reported that 8 million of people get inducted into the “middle class” category each and every year, from around 74 million people in 2013 to an estimated number of 141 million in 2020. This is particularly something which turns the Personal Finance market into a highly attractive gold mine.
These researches by Citibank and BCG show that it does make sense for iMoney and all of its competitors to fight to control this flourishing market named Indonesia.
