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Hello there,
In 2019, Angela Strange, general partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, gave a famous address outlining why every company will become a fintech company.
We’ve certainly seen how this has unfolded in Southeast Asia, with firms such as super app Grab, travel giant Traveloka, and AirAsia parent firm Capital A plunging into the financial services space.
In Indonesia, we’re seeing this play out in another way: peer-to-peer lenders in the country are becoming digital banks – or at least some of them are for now. My colleague Budi lays it out in this week’s big story.
For online lenders, the cost of funding continues to be one of their biggest operational costs. Being a bank provides access to deposits for cheap, which can fund lending businesses in a more sustainable way.
Akulaku and Kredivo, both consumer credit companies that also offer buy now, pay later services, for instance, have taken stakes in local banks. The former became a shareholder in Bank Neo Commerce in 2019, while Kredivo completed its acquisition of a majority stake in Bank Bisnis earlier this month.
Arguably, this also subjects them to increased regulation. That said, others like Investree swear by a more hands-off partnership approach, which the lending firm says keeps it agile.
Over in Singapore, I look at the recent flurry of crypto announcements by carpooling platform Ryde and a new crypto wallet launched by ride-hailing service Tada.
The introduction of tradeable NFTs, ride-to-earn mechanisms, and integrated crypto wallets for mobility services offers real-life utility for digital tokens, but will that be enough to drive mainstream users to adopt crypto? I explore these topics in this week’s Hot Take.
— Melissa
THE BIG STORY
As digibanks rise, will Indonesia’s online lenders become obsolete?
Image credit: Timmy Loen
The lines between online lenders and digibanks are blurring, but there are signs that coexistence is possible.
THE HOT TAKE
NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW
FYI
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