Financial comparison site Cermati raises $1.9m from existing investors

Cermati team, with Andhy Koesnandar in the center.

Cermati, an online portal for finding and comparing financial products in Indonesia, announced today it’s raised a series A round of investment worth US$1.9 million.

The money came from Cermati’s existing investors, East Ventures and Japan-based Beenos Plaza.

Cermati was co-founded by Andhy Koesnandar and Oby Sumampouw in December 2014. The pair previously worked as software engineers in the US before returning to Indonesia.

Wanting to build a meaningful company and looking for opportunities, they landed on the financial sector, Andhy recounts.

The site aggregates financial products such as loans from roughly 14 banks and multi-finance institutions. It lets credit-seekers apply for these online. Cermati gets rewards for successful conversions.

Since its launch in 2015, Cermati has helped facilitate over US$4.5 million worth of consumer loans, Andhy says.

Cermati competes with very similar companies like CekAja, HaloMoney, and others. The advantage it has over its competitors is that it is “fully local,” Andhy says. The startup wants to focus only on Indonesia, while CekAja and HaloMoney operate regionally.