Quona Capital's Partnership With KoinWorks Emphasizes Financial Inclusion
Jakarta. The Accion Frontier Inclusion Fund, managed by Washington-based Quona Capital, announced an investment on Monday in KoinWorks, Indonesia's largest responsible digital lender for small and medium enterprises.
This marks the first investment in Indonesia for Quona Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in growth-stage financial technology companies in emerging markets by leveraging a strategic relationship with Accion, a nonprofit firm focused on financial inclusion.
KoinWorks has about 100,000 lenders on its platform, which is more than any other digital peer-to-peer lender in Indonesia. The company has so far disbursed nearly Rp 1 trillion ($70 million) in loans, while keeping its nonperforming loans below 0.5 percent through proprietary credit scoring methods.
Quona Capital said in a statement that KoinWorks has through innovation enabled tens of thousands of SMEs to access credit and grow their businesses, positively impacting not only themselves but also the economy at large.
KoinWorks is registered and supervised by the Financial Services Authority (OJK).
"We are thrilled to partner with KoinWorks and their existing set of marquee investors for our first investment in Indonesia. Indonesia is one of the most rapidly growing fintech and financial inclusion markets," said Ganesh Rengaswamy, co-founder and partner at Quona Capital.
"We are committed to the country and have been evaluating opportunities here for several years. We have been patiently searching for a responsible lender with a unique growth story committed to empowering SMEs. We are excited to have found KoinWorks," Rengaswamy added.
"It is exciting for us to be able to collaborate with Quona as one of our investors. As a global fintech fund focused on financial inclusion, they look for companies that try to solve real problems for the underbanked and underserved. We are connected by the same vision," said Benedicto Haryono, chief executive and co-founder of KoinWorks.
The collaboration between Quona and KoinWorks is based on the belief that technology has the power to improve quality, access and affordability of financial services for the millions of people who are currently underserved.
Only 26 percent of Indonesians are considered well-served by financial institutions while up to 33 percent are currently unbanked. This leaves a sizeable market for companies such as KoinWorks and Quona.
"Quona's deep understanding of the fintech space will accelerate our growth and strengthen our mission to be a responsible lender. Their experience in guiding multiple fintech companies to become dominant market leaders around the world, while keeping social responsibility front and center, will be invaluable for KoinWorks," said Willy Arifin, chairman and co-founder of KoinWorks.
KoinWorks recently also received backing from an international consortium led by Mandiri Capital, a subsidiary of state-owned lender Bank Mandiri, one of Indonesia's largest lenders.
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