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Samreen Ahmad · · 3 min readPayJoy cashes in on Indonesia’s smartphone financing gap
PayJoy, a US-based smartphone financing company, has formally launched in Indonesia through a partnership with PT Bank Sahabat Sampoerna (Bank Sampoerna). This marks its second market in Southeast Asia, following its expansion into the Philippines in 2024.
The company operates in nine markets worldwide, including Mexico, Brazil, and South Africa.
PayJoy lets customers take out loans to buy smartphones using only a national ID and phone number./ Photo credit: PayJoy
PayJoy’s core product is an installment loan, which customers can use to purchase smartphones. To apply, they need only a national ID and a phone number. Approval rates are over 90%.
Smartphones are essential to daily life. This makes users more likely to meet payment obligations, Rene Payan, PayJoy’s country manager for the Philippines and lead for new-market launches, tells Tech in Asia.
He adds that when a payment is missed, “we motivate customers to contact us and explain the situation” because more often than not, it’s “not a fraudulent customer, but a cash flow problem.”
No late fees
Unlike most lenders, the firm doesn’t impose late fees, raise interest rates, or hound customers at their workplace for missed payments. Instead, it uses a patented locking tech dubbed “PayJoy Lock” to remotely lock their smartphone so they can’t access it.
When the phone is locked, the payment is simply paused, and there’s no accumulation of late fees and other penalties.
To install this tech on a firmware level, PayJoy works directly with “all major Chinese smartphone original equipment manufacturers,” including Oppo, Honor, and Realme. This makes it more challenging for jailbreakers to bypass the lock.
Payan adds that the company has a team dedicated to patching any known exploits.
See also: Funding surge for Philippine lenders defies SEA’s fintech slump
The startup reported 40% annual revenue growth and expects to reach about US$650 million in revenue and US$110 million in profit by the end of 2025, the company shared on a recent podcast.
PayJoy says it does not publish a headline non-performing loan ratio. However, it notes that in every market it operates, at least 60% of customers fully repay their loans within a year of maturity.
The company also caps its contribution profit yield, after accounting for defaults, at 40%. It says this prevents the firm from profiting disproportionately from high default rates.
Filling a large credit gap
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The company sees an opportunity in the country’s digital-first population, which has limited access to formal credit.
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