Indonesia’s financial Application Programming Interface (API) platform Ayoconnect has closed its $10 million Pre-Series B funding round from strategic investors.
New investors in Ayoconnect include Mandiri Capital Indonesia (the corporate venture arm of the country’s largest financial institution, Bank Mandiri) and Patamar Capital (Southeast Asia’s impact venture capital that invests in companies serving the “mass market” in South and Southeast Asia), Ayoconnect said in a statement on Wednesday.
Several high-profile individual strategic investors also participated in Ayoconnect’s pre-Series B raise including Ilham Akbar Habibie, an Indonesian technopreneur, Paul Bernard (ex-Managing Director at Goldman Sachs), Jeff Lin (iGlobe Partners) as well as additional high-profile individuals from financial institutions.
Pre-Series B funding allows Ayoconnect to continue to focus on growth, recruitment, and product development–particularly in building the API economy in Indonesia with full-stack API solutions, the company said.
“Uniquely, Ayoconnect is one among very few companies in Indonesia that received investment from Indonesia’s two largest banks–Bank Mandiri and Bank BRI. Having gained the trust out of both is definitely a huge boost in our effort to build the infrastructure layer that enables interoperability for Indonesian companies, such as financial institutions, FinTechs, and startups. Through APIs, Ayoconnect will continue to contribute to the government’s target to have 90 percent of financial inclusion by 2024,” said Ayoconnect Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Jakob Rost.
APIs are software intermediaries which allow two applications or institutions to talk to each other. Ayoconnect aggregates financial data from several data points, allowing its close partners to cater better, more inclusive financial services for millions of Indonesians. This is crucial in driving access to financial products in Indonesia, the world’s fourth-largest country by the population where a large segment of its population remains underserved, the company said.
Ayoconnect was co-founded by Jakob, along with Chiragh Kirpalani (Co-founder & COO) and Adi Vora (Co-founder & CTO) to build APIs around bills and digital products.
The company has swiftly evolved into a full-stack API provider–to build Financial Data APIs and Open Finance capabilities. Through this, Ayoconnect now serves as the go-to financial solution for banking and financial institutions, e-wallets, and e-commerce businesses to drive their growth with ready-to-use solutions for their embedded finance.
The company now has over 100+ clients, including Bank BRI, Bank Mandiri, DANA, Indomaret, Bukalapak, Home Credit, Pegadaian and connects more than 1,000 institutions through its network of APIs.
Mandiri Capital Indonesia CEO Eddi Danusaputro sees this partnership opportunity as beneficial for both parties to grow the Open Finance and Open Banking sector in Indonesia: “We are delighted to partner with Ayoconnect as we have the same solid ambitions and vision to grow the Open Banking sector. The vision of Ayoconnect in democratizing Open Finance for Indonesia has convinced us to go with the investment, seeing that Ayoconnect possesses the longest experience in building APIs, has established a remarkable client list, and is best positioned in their approach of entering the Open Banking business.”
Established in 2016, Ayoconnect has established itself as an API powerhouse in Indonesia. Despite the pandemic, the company managed to accelerate digitalization across multiple verticals, including the Indonesian finance industry. Ayoconnect recorded 10 times annual revenue growth in Q2 2021.
To support its continued growth, the company is already seeing strong interest from investors for its planned Series B fundraise and has started engaging in early discussions.
Founded in 2016, Ayoconnect is Indonesia’s largest API platform. It has raised a total of $15 million from local and international institutional investors. Ayoconnect’s investors include Mandiri Capital Indonesia, Bank Mandiri’s corporate venture capital unit; BRI Ventures, Bank BRI’s corporate venture capital unit; Indonesia’s AC Ventures, headed by Chairman of the Indonesian Fintech Association Pandu Sjahrir; Patamar Capital; Kakaku, a public company listed on the Tokyo Exchange (TYO); and Finch Capital, among others.
Featured image credits: Ayoconnect