Order With Grab, Pay With Mandiri E-Cash
Jakarta. Digital Artha Media, the digital developer arm of local investment firm Kresna Graha Investama, on Thursday (18/08) launched a new service that will allow ride-hailing service Grab's customers to pay their fares using Mandiri e-cash, an electronic money service from Indonesia's largest lender Bank Mandiri.
The new services gives another cashless payment option for Grab passengers beyond credit cards and at the same time provides Grab drivers with a convenient tool to manage their finances, Digital Artha's chief executive officer Indra Suryawan said in a statement.
Digital Artha is the technology provider and developer for Mandiri e-cash and Indra said it will continue its work on other end-to-end solutions for Grab.
"This partnership is part of an initiative to turn ourselves into the leading payment infrastructure player in the region,” Indra said.
Starting today, Grab passengers can use the new payment option on their Android phones. Digital Artha is still working on the iOS version of the service, Indra said.
For Grab, the partnership will give it access to the network of Indonesia's largest bank, which includes 17,000 ATMs and more than 25,000 Indomaret, Alfamart and Alfamidi outlets across the country where drivers can withdraw cash.
"This initiative is backed by powerful technology and a vast banking network. Grab can now offer a safer, and more convenient, payment option for passengers and driver partners," Grab Indonesia managing director Ridzki Kramadibrata said.
The new partnership came at the right time for Grab, which has been seeing stiffer competition from rivals San Francisco-based Uber and local start-up Go-Jek.
The latter introduced Go-Pay in April, which allows customers to deposit money in the Go-Jek app for payment — a clever idea in a country where only one percent of its population has a credit card.
Mandiri e-cash is now the largest electronic money service in Indonesia, boasting two million users thanks to its aggressive expansion in the past three years, equipping public transport facilities, convenience stores and toll gates with its card readers.
Suryandy Jahja, the managing director of Kresna Graha Investama, said the partnership with Grab will allow the company to tap into Mandiri e-cash’s user base growth.
The investment company's venture into the digital business includes online grocery service KeSupermarket.com to be launched later this year. Kresna Graha Investama has set aside Rp 1 trillion ($76 million) to acquire technology startups to tap into Indonesia's e-commerce market.
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