Indonesia’s Julo dives into education loans as others exit the space

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IN FOCUS

In today’s newsletter, we look at:

• How diversified fintech platform Julo can compete against a small group of niche players in the student financing sector
• Why the Indonesian government’s investigation into the high interest rates charged by online lenders may be misguided
• Popular Vietnamese e-wallet MoMo reaches a revenue high while widening operating loss in 2022

Hi there,

I was a scholar from elementary school to college and am, in fact, the first and only member of my immediate family to attend university.

In college, the scholarship I received was called Bidikmisi and was government-sponsored. While it covered all my tuition fees, the monthly allowance was modest, so I had to rely on my own funds for daily expenses.

Today, I discovered that Bidikmisi students can actually apply for student loans through a special channel provided by state-owned bank Mandiri. This would have been a great help during my college years.

Mandiri is not alone in offering student loans. Another bank, BRI, also provides such a service through its Briguna Pendidikan product.

In the tech sector, there are only a few major players in the educational financing market, which is largely underserved.

Recently, a new contender, Julo, has entered the scene, even as others have exited. How this diversified fintech platform can seize the opportunity is what I detail in this week’s Big Story.

Speaking of loans, Indonesia’s Business Competition Supervisory Commission has accused a local fintech association of setting a 0.8% daily interest rate, which it considers too high, and an investigation is underway. Does this allegation mirror the situation on the ground? Find out more in this week’s Hot Take.

— Budi

THE BIG STORY

Can Julo’s 1 million users help it succeed in Indonesia’s student financing industry?

Image credit: Timmy Loen

THE HOT TAKE

NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW

FYI