Tanaku, an Indonesia based proptech startup, said Tuesday it has raised $5.5 million of pre-seed funding led by East Ventures.

The round included equity and debt capital from an International Bank, Tanaku said in a statement.

It also said the fresh capital will accelerate Tanaku’s mission to make home ownership accessible and radically transform the home buying experience, with the current focus on building the product, expanding the team, acquiring homes, and executing the go-to -market strategy.

“We are ecstatic that East Ventures invested in our vision to bridge the homeownership gap and drive financial inclusivity in Indonesia. We are happy to partner with East Ventures due to strong cultural ties to Indonesia, deep rooted knowledge of the local tech landscape, while having the scale to support our ambitions,” said Jonathan Ma, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Tanaku.

“Our mission is to reverse the decline of home ownership in Indonesia and make the dream of owning a home accessible. In the long-run we want to fuel Indonesia’s transition toward green housing,” he added.

Tanaku is a prop-tech platform headquartered in Jakarta that is building a next generation platform to radically transform the home buying experience for Indonesians. By paying as little as 2 percent downpayment, home seekers can move into their own home and build downpayment with monthly instalments. In simple terms, Tanaku is a pre-mortgage solution that allows users to move into their first home seamlessly without all the complexities involved.

Founded in 2022, the firm’s mission is to make home ownership accessible for millions of Indonesians and empower them to join the path of home ownership. In the long term, the vision of Tanaku is to propel Indonesia’s transition to green housing and positively impact the future of 70 million Indonesian millennials.

Tanaku is founded by Ma, Andries De Vos (Co-Founder and Head of Product), Bhanu Prakash (Co-Founder and Head of Marketing) and Alwin Hajaning (Co-Founder and Head of Commercial) who are industry veterans in property, finance, legal, product and growth. They were united by the common mission of democratising home ownership by providing more buyer-friendly financing solutions.

In the initial rollout, prospective home buyers can select the home from Tanaku’s curated list of properties. In the future, Tanaku will facilitate purchase of any homes in the open market with partner agents across multiple cities in Indonesia.

“We believe in the ambition and expertise of the Tanaku Team in delivering alternative home financing solutions to help millions of Indonesians become financially responsible homeowners. We are excited to be part of Tanaku Team’ journey in welcoming the new era of home ownership in Indonesia,” said Devina Halim, Principal at East Ventures.

East Ventures is a pioneering and leading sector-agnostic venture capital firm headquartered in Singapore. Founded in 2009, the firm has transformed into a holistic platform that provides multi-stage investment, including Seed and Growth for over 200 companies in Southeast Asia.

An early believer in the startup ecosystem in Indonesia, East Ventures is the first investor of Indonesia’s unicorn companies, namely Tokopedia and Traveloka. Other notable companies in the portfolio include Ruangguru, SIRCLO, Kudo (acquired by Grab), Loket (acquired by Gojek), Tech in Asia, Xendit, IDN Media, MokaPOS (acquired by Gojek), ShopBack, KoinWorks, Waresix, and Sociolla.

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