Indonesian mobile payment player LinkAja aims to complete its series A funding round by the end of this year, its chief executive officer said.
While LinkAja CEO Danu Wicaksana declined to mention the amount of funding that he aimed to raise, he did say that around seven or eight new state-owned enterprises (SOEs) will participate to invest in the series A round.
“SOE transportation companies from railways to flag carriers will jointly invest in this funding round,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the Indonesia Banking Expo Summit 2019 on Thursday.
LinkAja is an integrated e-wallet service created through a merger of the e-wallets of Indonesian telco firm Telkomsel, as well as lenders Bank Mandiri, BRI, and BNI. It is also backed by Indonesian financial institution PT Danareksa, oil and gas firm Pertamina, and insurance firm Jiwasraya.
The company also plans to raise series B funding sometime during the first or second quarter of 2020. Wicaksana said that its other backer, state-lender Bank BTN, will invest in the series B funding round. He said that they welcome private companies to invest in this round too.
LinkAja said it will utilize the funds raised to expand its business and services to reach more customers in Indonesia. He said that currently only 18% of total LinkAja users are from greater Jakarta. Most potential users are located outside greater Jakarta, the highest contributing internet economy region in Indonesia.
For instance, in the next month and a half, LinkAja plans to offer instant loan service PayLater to its users, and partner with state-owned banks, and other fintech players. It is also in talks with regulators to integrate its e-wallet platforms with the services of state-owned banks.
“We are keen to be the e-wallet provider to banks, but will wait to hear from the regulators. This means users don’t need to top up their e-wallet balances. They can perform transactions and directly auto debit to their bank accounts,” he explained.
LinkAja, which launched its e-wallet service in July, is playing aggressively in many ecosystems. In the early stages, LinkAja secured deals to integrate state-owned lenders’ linked channels, such as to pay electricity bills, phone credit, gas station transactions, domestic remittances, and a toll road payment pilot project. It also plans to be a payment system for public transportation such as railways, flag carrier tickets, and such.
Moreover, it has since integrated with multiple apps, where other fintech players also use its platform. Users can now access LinkAja in ride-hailing apps such as Gojek and Grab; as well as apps by marketplace and e-commerce firms such as Bukalapak, Blibli, Tokopedia and online travel agent Tiket.com.
The integration with other platforms makes LinkAja the only fintech payment player that is available on multiple platforms. For instance, Gojek customers have the option to select LinkAja as one of the payment options to use GoRide or GoTix [the ticket purchasing service available on Gojek’s platform].
“We want to give customers more options for transactions. Hence we want to be appear on many tech platforms,” Wicaksana explained. Today, LinkAja’s total registered users stand at 30 million. He claimed that the user base is close to that of the second largest e-wallet player in Indonesia.
Based on a report by iPrice group and App Annie, LinkAja ranked fourth out of the ten biggest e-wallet apps in Indonesia as of the second quarter of this year. Meanwhile, GoPay and OVO ranked first and second, respectively.
A director at Bank Mandiri, one of the shareholders of LinkAja, revealed that the strategy of LinkAja in acquiring customers is expanding LinkAja’s presence in many ecosystems, instead of merely ‘burning cash’.
