Mapan’s crew, with CEO Ardelia Apti within the entrance
In Indonesia, arisans are historically rotating financial savings and credit score associations (RSCA) that allow teams of individuals, primarily ladies, save and borrow cash collectively. Mapan digitized that idea, and turned it right into a service the place customers, additionally largely ladies, can use it to pay for items and companies. The corporate introduced at present it has raised a Collection A of $15 million. The spherical was co-led by Patamar Capital and PT Astra Digital Internasional, a subsidiary of conglomerate PT Astra Worldwide Tbk (also called Astra Worldwide).
The spherical included participation from BRI Ventures, SMDV, Blibli, Prasetia Dwidharma, Flourish Ventures and 500 World.
Mapan says it helps individuals get entry to monetary companies in a rustic the place 51% of adults are unbanked, or don’t have entry to a checking account. Mapan is at present obtainable in Java, Bali, Sumatera, Nusa Tenggara and Sulawesi, with plans to increase into the remainder of Indonesia. It at present claims greater than three million members.
The brand new capital shall be used to increase Mapan’s product vary and companion with extra suppliers for its market of products for resellers. It additionally needs to make Mapan Arisan obtainable to 10 million households in Indonesia by 2026.
Mapan, which suggests “regular” in Bahasa Indonesian, was based in 2009. The corporate just lately appointed Ardelia Apti as its CEO. Earlier than working at Mapan, Apti spent 5 years at Gojek as a part of its GoTo Group, the place she helped construct Swadaya, its advantages program for Gojek drivers, and likewise led GoPay’s offline funds. Earlier than that, she was nation director for AI firm Factor, Inc. and a McKinsey marketing consultant.
At 13 years outdated, the startup is likely one of the first of a rising and various variety of tech corporations focused towards Indonesians and SMEs that discover it troublesome to entry conventional monetary companies. A number of of the others Fintech has coated embody earned-wage entry startup GajiGesa; Tremendous, a social commerce startup for rural areas; Jeff, which is constructing different scoring and different fintech merchandise for Southeast Asia; SME working capital platform KoinWorks; and InfraDigital to digitize money tuition funds for faculties.
Apti advised Fintech that Mapan’s founding crew noticed that “many current commerce, earnings and monetary options aren’t in favor of low-income communities. They require extra effort and prices to have the ability to get the products they need in a means that’s reasonably priced to them. Likewise, there are methods to earn earnings, a lot of which require time, capital and experience which are troublesome to entry for this goal market, particularly ladies.”
When it was based, Mapan was recognized was RUMA and enabled warungs, or small neighborhood shops, in rural areas to turn into invoice and telephone credit score sellers. Apti stated the corporate pivoted to deal with Mapan Arisan, launching the app in 2015 as a result of it noticed what number of arisans had been utilized by its target market, and needed to digitize the idea.
The corporate’s additionally launched different merchandise, together with a payments fee options known as Mapan Pulsa, and Mapan Mart, a platform the place resellers can choose shopper merchandise from Mapan’s market or purchase for themselves.
Mapan Arisan teams must have no less than 5 members, and are used for items and companies, together with kitchenware, electronics and furnishings price about 200,000 IDR (or about $13.48 USD) to three million IDR (about $200 USD), as a substitute of money. Apti stated that “primarily based on our analysis, social fintech with such a goal is extra wanted by the low earnings group” and provides them the motivation to finish an arisan course of.
Leaders of Mapan Arisan teams, known as Mitra Usaha Mapan, or MUM, use its app to find out the shuffle dates of Arisans, or when every member will get their items or companies. Apti stated that the winner of every raffle is determined by way of an algorithm to make sure equity.
MUMs additionally get advantages together with cashback commissions primarily based on the entire transactions or group worth on the finish of the Arisan and a loyalty program that may redeemed into quite a lot of advantages, together with e-wallet credit, gold bars, bikes, several types of financial savings and home down funds. In addition they assist Mapan develop by upselling its members to the corporate’s different companies. Apti stated that since 2009, the corporate has had 250,000 MUMs.
Mapan monetizes by way of the distinction between its promoting costs and buy value from its provider. Apti stated that offering large-scale entry to mid- to low-income communities in a cost-efficient means in comparison with their conventional channels means Mapan is ready to supply higher costs.
In a ready assertion, Patamar Capital companion Dondi Hananto stated, “The idea of Arisan has been core to Indonesian tradition for a few years, and by digitizing it, Mapan introduced scalability to the age-old follow.”