Heaptalk, Jakarta — Singapore’s B2B embedded finance startup Fairbanc has landed new debt financing at US$13.3 million from Bank Rakyat Indonesia ‘s (BRI Bank) subsidiary, Pegadaian. The company intends to utilize the funds to widen its business in the archipelago by strengthening its off-balance sheet financing through its new BNPL gateway.
In response to the company’s further expansion in Indonesia, Fairbanc’s founder and CEO, Mir Haque, claimed that around 95 million people in Indonesia still did not have a formal account with a financial institution. With Fairbanc’s services in the archipelago, he believes the company can open up great opportunities by providing access to credit to millions of local traders to stimulate the economy.
Established in 2019, Fairbanc provides integrated payment tempo solutions with AI/ML to make things easier for MSMEs by combining global consumer brand ERP systems with large merchant ecosystems. As a result, this startup has embroiled over 550,000 merchants on its platform and helped around 200,000 sellers who have received funding.
On the other hand, this startup has partnered with around 13 consumer brands, spanning Unilever, Nestle, Coca-Cola, and Danone. In its growth, Fairbanc has onboarded over 350,000 merchants, with 75,000 using its BNPL feature. Most users are last-mile micro-merchants, often unbanked, with 70% being women. Besides amplifying the Indonesian market, the team aims to explore new markets, such as Vietnam and the Phillippines, through strategic affiliation with Unilever.
Before bagging the new debt fund, this financial technology startup obtained US$4.8 million in a pre-series A round led by Vertex Ventures and participated in by the Asian Development Bank. East Ventures, Lippo Group, 500 Global, Accion Ventures, and Michael Sampoerna Group. Fairbanc tackled this new investment to expand its distributor partners and strengthen its sales and technology teams.
Cited in the official press release, the Chief of the Transformation Office of Pegadaian, Mulyono, said, “Fairbanc’s ability to extract big data at the outlet level by connecting major brands’ ERPs and obtaining credit scores using AI Machine Learning is a key synergy that we point out,”
