Ajaib, Stockbit drive Indonesia’s stock-trading boom

Amid the pandemic, stock trading has become a favorite pastime in many countries, and Indonesia is no exception. By June 2020, the country had 1.2 million retail investors – a 12% rise from six months earlier.

That inflow of new investors has lifted the country’s stock-trading apps to new heights. Stockbit, for instance, was valued at US$10.8 million in Q4 2019, according to data from VentureCap Insights. By Q2 2021, it was valued at US$347 million, following a series D round.

Ajaib, one of Stockbit’s competitors, has gone a step further, becoming one of Indonesia’s latest unicorns.

Perhaps more impressively, Ajaib has done so in only two and a half years. Among Indonesia’s unicorns, only Ovo has reached the milestone quicker.

“To date, the app has more than 1 million investors, dominated by the younger generation, especially millennials and Gen Z,” a source close to Ajaib tells Tech in Asia.

The size of Stockbit’s user base is also similar, a spokesperson confirms. That said, Stockbit has an additional 2 million users through Bibit, the mutual funds robo adviser it acquired in 2019.

If the trajectory of US-based stock-trading app Robinhood – which went public in 2021 at a valuation of US$32 billion – is anything to go by, there may be good reason for bullishness around its Indoneasian counterparts.

“It’s not impossible that Ajaib will become as big as Robinhood within a short time,” Chandra Tjan, partner at Alpha JWC Ventures, previously told Tech in Asia.

Ajaib founders Anderson Sumarli (left) and Yada Piyajomkwan / Photo credit: Ajaib

But Ajaib and Stockbit are hardly the only players in this space. Indonesia’s major banks and asset managers also offer apps besides their in-house services. Meanwhile, there are newer players like Pluang, which offers multiple products (including cryptocurrency) via a single app.

“Competition in this vertical is still at an early stage,” notes Melisa Irene, partner at Stockbit backer East Ventures. “Opportunities are still wide open for potential new players.”

Battling the establishment

Perhaps what’s most impressive is how quickly these apps have grown.

Stockbit, for instance, saw its valuation climb over 30x in just a year and a half to US$10.8 million in Q4 2019. Ajaib, meanwhile, has raised a total of US$245 million in disclosed funding – 90% of that was raised entirely in 2021, spread across three different rounds.

Expanding into crypto?