JULO, an Indonesia-based digital lender, said Wednesday it has secured $80 million funding from Credit Saison, a Japanese financial services company affiliated to Mizuho Financial Group.
This funding includes a mix of $30 million equity and $50 million debt fully funded by Credit Saison, JULO said in a statement.
Investors from previous rounds include Skystar Capital, Saratoga Investama, East Ventures, Quona Capital, Central Capital Ventura, MDI Ventures, Gobi Partners and others also participated in the round.
The investment round was structured to scale the company’s growth with a two-pronged approach. $30 million equity will be used to advance JULO’s analytics, for product development, marketing, and customer acquisition plans by hiring additional talent across their developer, data scientist and business intelligence teams. $50 million debt will be used to fuel finance loans on the platform.
“JULO is already being used by Indonesians throughout their financial lives – 72 percent of loans are used for improvement purposes such as business capital, home renovation and education. By joining hands with Credit Saison, we have a fresh opportunity to take this significantly further by re-envisioning what the future of traditional lending should look like to truly uplift the region’s most underserved,” said Adrianus Hitijahubessy, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of JULO.
Founded at the end of 2016, JULO is a digital credit company that is revolutionizing access to financial products for millions of emerging consumers in Indonesia. The company is one of the first to develop digital data-driven credit underwriting and risk assessment platform to process consumer credit applications and determine their creditworthiness using its mobile app.
In 2021, the firm launched a digital credit card, which saw 97 percent users utilizing non-cash features to top-up e-wallets, top up phone credits, pay utility bills, and process payments on e-commerce sites.
Amidst the consolidation of peer-to-peer lenders in Indonesia, JULO has outperformed expectations, having managed a positive yield in its portfolio during the height of COVID-19 in 2020. In 2021, the total number of funds disbursed grew by more than three times as compared to the year prior and is currently on track to increase its loan book by more than five times in the next 12 months.
“Credit innovation requires a deep understanding of local consumer behaviors and needs in order to truly improve the financial health of all. JULO has emerged from the past few years as a resilient and COVID-proven business with more than US$300M disbursements under its belt to date. We look forward to joining hands with them in this next phase of growth to accelerate financial products that will drive truly meaningful change for individuals in Southeast Asia,” said Kosuke Mori, Senior Managing Executive Officer and Head of Global Business at Credit Saison Co., Ltd.
The investment from Credit Saison is part of the company’s continuous efforts to introduce its financial services foundation to high-growth fintechs outside of Japan via a combination of capital and close operational partnerships. The investments mark the organisation’s next steps to accelerate its expansion into the high-growth and promising Indonesian market.
Being the only corporate investor on JULO’s cap table with a global lending business, Credit Saison will play an active role in JULO’s hyper-growth phase and provide governance direction as the company scales. Both companies will also explore preliminary opportunities to expand into other emerging markets together.