Heaptalk, Jakarta – Indonesia-based credit tech startup, SkorLife has closed its pre-seed funding worth USD2.2 million from a group of high-profile investors. Through this new funding, SkorLife will focus on product development, human capital expansion, and brand awareness enhancement.
AC Ventures and Saison Capital participated come as new backers in this round to support SkorLife’s business growth. In addition, founders of the diverse companies also supported this round as angel investors, consisting of all founders of OneCard; Will Arifin (KoinWorks), Krishan Menon (Lummo), Arip Tirta (Evermos), Harshet Lunani (Qoala), Achmad Zaky (Init 6). Executives from Northstar Group, Stripe, Boston Consulting Group, Gojek, and CreditKarma are also involved in this round.
As one of the investors involved, Founder and Managing Partner of AC Ventures, Adrian Li, conveyed that Indonesia has vast potential, perceiving the credit market size is already north of USD185 billion even as the space is relatively untapped. Thus, Adrian claimed that matters have always been an obstacle as lenders have never been able to draw conclusions holistically related to borrowers according to the limited and fragmented information.
SkorLife is considered a unique platform in the local market as this app can build what stakeholders refer to as a category builder of the consumer credit realm. On a consumer and institutional level, creditworthiness is highly under-utilized in Indonesia. Banks and other financial companies rely primarily on Income Worthiness when deciding to offer lines of credit to borrowers. To overcome the matter, SkorLife aims to provide control back to customers by taking a more active role in creating and retaining their credit scores.
“SkorLife is the first-ever credit builder in Indonesia that has become a category-defining company. Our resolve is fortified and validated by the collective confidence of our early investors. With their networks and knowledge, this platform is well-positioned to lead the charge of consumer credit in the nation. Through our service, users will be able to build and improve their credit profiles with features such as personalized tips and advice. We will also assist in delivering more New to credit (NTC) users into the fold,” explained the Co-Founder and CEO of SkorLife.
The startup has created a credit builder application for people to access and monitor their credit scores, credit reports, and other relevant data from credit bureaus instantly and for free. SkorLife’s team also offers a mechanism for helping consumers dispute inaccurate information on their credit reports.
This platform will assist customers with a credit history to access and improve their scores. In contrast, this app will guide the users to build for those who don’t have a credit history, for instance, fresh graduates, freelancers, and content creators. In both scenarios, the startup provides AI-driven, personalized tips to bolster users unlock broader access to credit.
With no straight competitors in the market, this Indonesia-based fintech app is operating in a ‘greenfield’ space. Currently, Indonesia has 92 million credit records in the bureaus. Meanwhile, most Indonesian do not have access to this information. As a result, SkorLife’s parties look forward to gaining 2.5 million NTC users per year.
As mentioned by Karan Khetan, Co-Founder and COO of SkorLife, the team has collected the feedback of millions of users to determine a clear gap in the credit life cycle in Indonesia. Karan observed people in Indonesia are not aware of their creditworthiness. Following this issue, Karan believes the platform will be instrumental in driving financial literacy and inclusion in the country.
During its operations, SkorLife has 19 on its team and plans to increase to 40 people. For its product, the SkorLife Alpha version has been downloaded over 3,000 times and grown into around 50 – 60 new users per day organically. The private statistic adoption exceeds the company’s internal target by more than seven timers. Perceiving the potential increase, the fintech startup will soon make its app available to the public.
“But with these data troves just waiting to be unlocked and used meaningfully in a consumer-facing app, we are excited about SkorLife’s goals of putting people back in charge of their financial features. We also believe in backing strong founders early on. The unfair advantages that Ongki and Karan bring to the table make AC Ventures keen to be on SKorLife’s side from the beginning.” Adrian said.
