The public bank’s VC arm signs MoU with the P2P lending fintech for the agriculture sector to support microloans
Mandiri Capital Indonesia (MCI), the corporate venture capital of Bank Mandiri Indonesia, announces that it has led the US$1 million Pre-Series A funding for agriculture-focussed P2P lending startup Crowde, as reported by DailySocial. Along with the funding, Mandiri also participates as an institutional lender for credit loans through Crowde for US$7.1 million.
CEO MCI Eddi Danusaputro said that the VC chose to invest in Crowde because it fits what the bank was looking for as well as its mission statement. Mandiri also revealed that it currently aims to increase the productivity in credit loans for SMEs, especially the credit microloan.
Crowde was deemed feasible because it focusses on productive sectors such as agriculture, fishery, and commerce.
MCI also confirms that it will soon lead to another funding in a company that also focusses on financial management.
“We tend to back startups in Series A, but we made an exception for Crowde because of its capacity in fulfilling Mandiri’s needs,” Danusaputro added.
Crowde CEO Yohanes Sugihtononugroho said that Crowde will use the funding to build the farmer-supporting technology as the company believes that there is not much segmentation in the agriculture-related technology in the country.
“Our focus will remain to reach to more farmers by building technology that can be used by Indonesian farmers,” said Sugihtononugroho.
The Pre-Series A funding round of Crowde is still ongoing as the company said it still looks for other strategic investors to come aboard. The number of funding it seeks to raise remains undisclosed.
Mandiri’s credit loan to Crowde will allow the company to reference a potential creditor to join the selection process and to determine the loan for each potential creditor.
Also Read: Mandiri Capital Indonesia prepares fresh funds for 4 startups this year
Based on the selection process, Mandiri will process the credit loan application with a maximum accessible platform of US$14,000.
Up until August 2019, Mandiri reportedly has issued a micro-credit loan for US$1.7 billion to Indonesian SMEs. Crowde, on the other hand, has backed almost 17,000 low and middle-class farmers in Java, Sumatera, and Eastern Indonesia by issuing US$6.4 million in credit loans.
Crowde’s previous investors include Gree Ventures, Crevisse Ventures, and “local, prominent” angel investors.
–
Image Credit: Colin Watts on Unsplash
The post Agriculture-focussed fintech Crowde receives US$1M Pre-Series A funding from Mandiri Capital Investment appeared first on e27.