Indonesian P2P platform iGrow’s growing pains

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Hi there,

Investors today have countless opportunities to grow their wealth. From the safety of Singapore Savings Bonds to the thrill of a high-growth tech company like Tesla, investors can build a portfolio that best suits their needs and appetite for risk.

For those who find stocks and bonds too mainstream, there are options like iGrow, an Indonesian peer-to-peer lending platform that connects investors with capital to farmers who need it.

The company is offering returns of 12% to 18% for each project, which seems like a tantalizing prospect compared to other options.

Yet, investing in such projects very often comes with a huge caveat emptor – buyer beware – warning. Thousands of lenders on the iGrow platform are facing delays in receiving their investment returns, as my colleague Budi translates in this week’s Big Story.

According to Indonesian authorities, the risk of bad loans is borne by the lenders and not the middleman platforms.

Indeed, that is the whole point of the peer-to-peer model. However, in this environment, lenders will need to exercise a high degree of prudence and caution.

For the more adventurous, alternative assets such as agriculture are becoming increasingly popular and accessible to retail investors.

In turn, platforms like ADDX have sprung up, promising individual investors access to assets like hedge funds and private equity that were previously only available to large institutions and ultra-high-net-worth individuals. This is a trend I look at in this week’s Hot Take.

— Simon

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THE BIG STORY

iGrow’s sprouting credit issues disquiet P2P investors 

The Indonesian peer-to-peer lender’s payment success rate has been steadily declining since 2022.

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THE HOT TAKE

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NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW

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