AwanTunai bags $27.5m, hits positive EBITDA

AwanTunai co-founders Rama Notowidigdo (left) and Dino Setiawan / Photo credit: AwanTunai

After recently hitting positive EBITDA, Indonesia-based AwanTunai has secured US$27.5 million in a series B round led by Norwegian sovereign fund Norfund, Japanese corporate VC firm MUFG Innovation Partners, and Finnish impact investment vehicle OP Finnfund.

With the help of the newly acquired capital, AwanTunai is aiming to hit positive profit after taxes.

Dino Setiawan, the Indonesian firm’s co-founder and CEO, said that the company will use the new funds to strengthen its equity base and expand its lending capital facilities to cover over US$2 billion worth of annualized inventory purchase financing by year-end.

“We only need to grow our volumes to around 3 trillion rupiah (US$193 million) a month to achieve initial economies of scale,” said Setiawan. “In the world of lending, that’s actually quite a small loan book, reflecting how efficient our business model is compared to alternatives in the market.”

Setiawan, alongside ex-Gojek executives Windy Natriavi and Rama Notowidigdo, founded AwanTunai in 2017. It provides loans to grocery suppliers and traders in Indonesia.

According to the Tech in Asia database, this round brings AwanTunai’s total disclosed funding to US$71.5 million. Previously, it raised US$8.5 million in series A funding from the International Finance Corporation, Global Brain, and Insignia Ventures Partners.

See also: Who is JTA, Investree’s lead investor in its $231m funding round?

Currency converted from Indonesian rupiah to US dollar: US$1 = 15,585 rupiah.