Traveloka plans to expand fintech services beyond its app via Sirclo

Indonesian travel unicorn Traveloka plans to expand its fintech services beyond its own platform through its investment in Sirclo, according to Brian Marshal, the CEO of the ecommerce enabler.

Traveloka joined Sirclo’s US$36 million funding round that was closed last week, along with East Ventures, Saratoga, and Sinar Mas Land. With the new investment, Sirclo has raised a total of around US$50 million to US$60 million from investors to date.

Photo credit: Traveloka

Traveloka currently offers fintech services such as e-wallet, bills payment, insurance, and a “buy now, pay later” service. However, most of these are only available to users in its own platform. The integration with Sirclo may allow the travel company to serve hundreds of thousands of merchants, brands, and entrepreneurs in Sirclo’s ecosystem with its fintech services.

“[The collaboration can be in the form of] pushing for more transactions or giving loan[s] if they need more capital. We still have to discuss the details about the features or products [that we want to build],” Marshal told Tech in Asia.

Earlier this year, Traveloka also announced plans to launch its fintech services in other countries like Thailand and Vietnam.

Read also: Traveloka is nearly profitable despite Covid-19

Traveloka has been mulling over plans to go public in the US since late last year. Since then, the company has been aggressively expanding its offerings such as its food delivery business, which competes with big names such as GoFood, GrabFood, and ShopeeFood.

However, it was reported last week that Traveloka has halted merger talks with the blank-check company backed by billionaires Richard Li and Peter Thiel for its initial public offering.

According to Marshal, it’s not the first time Sirclo has collaborated with other firms to support its core business of helping individuals and businesses sell their products online. Sirclo had previously collaborated with a logistics partner to provide a fulfillment service.

“However, we haven’t [looked into the] finance sector seriously, and in a strategic manner. Our expansion on that area is limited to integration with payment gateways to provide online payment,” Marshal explained.