SoftBank-backed Ajaib pours $52m into Indonesian bank

Investment app Ajaib has bought 554 million shares of Bank Bumi Arta, or about 24% of the Indonesian bank’s enlarged capital.

Photo credit: Ajaib

Jakarta-based Ajaib acquired the shares from three existing shareholders – Surya Husada Investment, Dana Graha Agung, and Budiman Kencana Lestari – for 1,345 rupiah (around US$0.09) per share. The fintech firm paid 745 billion rupiah (around US$52.2 million) in total and became the bank’s second largest shareholder.

In September, Bank Bumi Arta only had 1.6 trillion rupiah (around US$112 million) in common equity. That’s 400 billion rupiah (around US$28 billion) less than the minimum limit that the bank must own by December 2021.

To fulfill that requirement, the bank has announced a plan to raise 75 billion rupiah (around US$5.2 million) through a right issue slated to be executed in mid-December.

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Ajaib seems to be following in the footsteps of other tech companies such as Gojek, Sea Group, Akulaku, and FinAccel, which have invested in small local banks to turn them into digital banks.

Last month, Ajaib entered the unicorn club after raising US$153 million in a round led by DST Global. It also counts Ribbit Capital, SoftBank Ventures Asia, Alpha JWC Ventures, Insignia Ventures, and Horizons Ventures as its investors.