8 startups to watch in Indonesia in 2017

If you ask investors what types of startups will likely rise this year, they’ll probably mention fintech, some specialized forms of ecommerce, media, and perhaps software-as-a-service.

Here’s a list of startups in those categories I think we’ll hear more from this year.

Fintech

1. Investree

Hailing from the portfolio of Mountain Kejora Ventures, Investree is an exciting new player in financial services.

Its core feature is invoice financing. Small business sometimes have to wait weeks or months to be paid by clients for services or products already shipped. Through Investree, they can get the amount that’s owed to them in advance, which allows them to plan better. Once the client’s payment comes through, the lender gets the money back – with interest, of course.

The startup, which has dished out roughly US$4.5 million in loans so far, is a peer-to-peer lending marketplace where third-party lenders provide the cash and get interest in return.

Investree is also looking into employee loans, where lenders can help employees of Investree’s partner companies to finance special expenses like medical treatment, house renovation, or buying a motorcycle.

Co-founders Aida Sutanto, Adrian Gunadi, Andi Andries, and Dickie Widjaja are an experienced team and bring years of experience in the banking and finance sector with them.

Investree’s last announced funding was its series A from Mountain Kejora in June 2016

2. UangTeman

UangTeman is also a loans startup, but different from Investree in that it does not invite third-party lenders onto the platform. Instead, it gives out its own money to borrowers – very small loans intended to help people through a particularly tight stretch, for example toward the end of the month.

Ecommerce

Media

Software-as-a-service