Indonesia may be grappling with the economic fallout of a ferocious pandemic, but for some, the unforgiving operating climate has been an opportunity to showcase their business resilience and proposition. ALAMI is one of a few to find a silver lining during this dark storm: the Islamic fintech firm managed to close a US$20 million series A round, a feat it says is backed by its 2020 track record amid severe economic difficulty.
Co-led by regional venture capital funds AC Ventures and Golden Gate Ventures, the round was also participated by several other investors including fintech fund Quona Capital. The US$20 million debt funding, however, was raised from an undisclosed “international impact fund focusing on the healthcare sector in emerging markets”, noted ALAMI. The Islamic peer-to-peer (P2P) finance platform last August entered into a partnership with BPJS Kesehatan, the Republic’s Social Security Administrator for Health, through which the fintech start-up will channel funding to the public body. This proved to be a strategic move as it assisted ALAMI in securing its latest round of funding.
“ALAMI’s strong on-the-ground presence and cooperation agreement with BPJS Kesehatan make them a great partner to finance the healthcare segment. They are genuinely committed to helping Indonesia during this pandemic,” said the fund’s spokesperson.
The involvement of Singapore’s Golden Gate Ventures in this fundraising exercise is not surprising as it also led the start-up’s US$1.5 million seed round last year.
“We are incredibly pleased with ALAMI’s performance amid the pandemic, and most importantly, we believe in the co-founders’ vision to provide a more user-friendly and spot-on Shariah financial solutions to the underserved MSMEs in Indonesia. That is why we were eager to continue leading the round,” shared Justin Hall, a partner at Golden Gate Ventures.
The funding will be used to support ALAMI’s aggressive growth plans. Founder and CEO Dima Djani shared that the platform is targeting to quadruple its financing disbursement to over IDR1 trillion (US$70.38 million) in 2021 with a focus on impact-driven sectors such as healthcare, farming, logistics and food, among others.
“This successful raise is a testament that there is a strong appetite for the growing Shariah fintech space in Indonesia as the largest Muslim-populated country in the world. We believe that the existing players in the Shariah financial industry have just utilized a fraction of its potential, as there are more to explore with technologies, the social finance space for example,” shared Dima.
It is also worth noting that the series A round is completed hot on the heels of ALAMI securing a permanent P2P lending license from the Financial Services Authority.