Ajaib, Southeast Asia’s leading digital wealth and marketplace platform, has closed a $65M Series A extension, led by Ribbit Capital. This extension brings their total Series A round to $90M, marking the largest round closed by an Indonesian fintech startup.
We’ll take a closer look at the investment and how it will help Ajaib grow.
Background on Ajaib
Ajaib is a fintech platform providing simple online investments and wealth management solutions to Indonesian customers. Since its launch in 2017, it has grown rapidly to become the leading fintech platform in Indonesia, with over 4.5 million users and more than $3 billion of assets under management.
Ribbit Capital, one of the world’s most active fintech investors, recently invested in Ajaib as part of Ajaib’s Series C funding round. This is Ribbit Capital’s fourth investment in Southeast Asia and represents a major milestone for both parties as they work together to drive greater financial inclusion for the people of Indonesia.
This investment by Ribbit Capital will allow Ajaib to expand its services and provide greater access to innovative solutions that make investing more transparent, cost-effective and secure for Indonesian consumers. The company will use the fresh investment capital to scale up operations, open new retail locations, grow its technology platform and explore new business partnerships across Indonesia’s unbanked population. Furthermore, Ajaib aims to build stronger relationships with banks and other stakeholders to provide access to accessible financial services for all Indonesians.
Overview of Ribbit Capital
Ribbit Capital is a venture capital and private equity firm with offices in Palo Alto, London, Mexico City and Singapore. The firm’s portfolio companies span the consumer, enterprise and fintech sectors with investments across the globe. With a $1 billion global portfolio, Ribbit Capital invests in early-stage to growth-stage technology companies until they reach their full potential.
Ribbit Capital has participated in more than 120 investments into startups like Uber, Coinbase, Plaid and Gusto. In January 2021, Ribbit joined forces with Ajaib to invest $30 million into the Malaysian wealthtech startup. This deal marks Rabbit’s first investment in Southeast Asia and underscores its commitment to ignite growth for startup founders by providing unmatched support through early-stage investing.
The Investment will enable Ajaib to accelerate its regional expansion plans as it looks to strengthen its product capabilities and optimize operations globally. With this new capital infusion and support from Ribbit, Ajaib will be able build out its team of experienced innovators while continuing its expansion into Southeast Asia’s booming fintech industry.
Ajaib raises $65M Series A extension led by Ribbit Capital, increasing the round’s total to $90M
Ajaib recently announced that it has raised a $65M Series A extension led by Ribbit Capital, bringing the round’s total to $90M. Existing investors supported this extension, including Falcon Edge, Endeavor Catalyst, Hummingbird Ventures, and other leading venture investors.
The investment will help Ajaib accelerate its regional expansion and product innovation.
Amount raised
Ajaib, a mobile-first investing platform providing financial services to investors in Indonesia, announced today the extension of its Series A round to $18 million. Following the initial close in August 2019 at $15 million, Ribbit Capital has led the extension with participation from existing investors including East Ventures, Alpha JWC Ventures, Indonusa Dwitama and EV Growth. This extended funding supports Ajaib’s efforts to expand its suite of sophisticated investment products and secure partnerships with leading financial institutions throughout Indonesia.
This extended Series A investment brings the total amount raised for Ajaib to date to nearly $25 million. Since inception in 2018, Ajaib has been at the forefront of innovation in Indonesia’s fintech industry. Its comprehensive offering includes stocks and mutual funds from various asset management companies, government bonds and regular savings accounts from domestic and international banks. In addition, the platform—which recently crossed over 1 million cumulative app downloads—has also launched Bank Syariah cooperation programs serving customers who request Shariah-compliant investments that use mudharabah or wakalah principles.
Investors involved
Earlier this week, Ajaib announced it has raised a Series A Extension led by Ribbit Capital. The investment included Contrarian Ventures, Earlybird Venture Capital, Financial Venture Studio and returning angel investors, including Yinglan Tan, angel investor and managing partner at Insignia Ventures Partners; and Weidong Liu, executive chairman of the board at X Financial.
This Series A Extension marks the total round at USD$17 million and highlights the progress in delivering a robust consumer financial platform for Asia’s digital banking generation. The funds will help Ajaib grow its presence across Southeast Asia and develop its consumer mobile banking platform.
At its core, Ribbit Capital is a venture capital fund focused on investing in fintech startups and innovative traditional financial services leaders worldwide. Their investments span industries ranging from payments to banking to wealth management technologies. As an investor in this financing round, Ribbit Capital will aide in Ajaib’s mission to build a more manageable financial future for millions of Southeast Asians by providing digital-first financial products focused on safety, convenience, transparency and low costs for users.
Additionally, Contrarian Ventures focuses primarily on investments covering various parts of the fintech life cycle – from early-stage companies developing new products to mature players scaling operations worldwide across retail banking & lending, insurtech & commercial finance capabilities; Earlybird VC specializes mainly in seed through growth stage businesses in Europe migrating towards innovative business models taking advantage of tech trends such as blockchain & AI; Financial Venture Studio supports businesses focussed on legal barriers compliance innovations; whilst Yinglan Tan was previously Sequoia Capital China’s Managing Partner before starting Insignia Ventures Partners which is based out of Singapore – dedicated mainly to early-stage investments with an initial focus on Southeast Asia & India technology companies; Lastly Weidong Liu is an executive chairman of X Financial (NYSE:XYF), a publicly traded New York Stock Exchange-listed financial technology company which provides online wealth management services targeting young adults in China along with being credited with launching Ziguan Credit – today one of China’s largest online-only credit scoring platforms.
How the funds will be used
The Series A extension to Ajaib’s existing round of $1.4M, led by Fintech investor Ribbit Capital, will fuel the company’s next-level growth. Specifically, the new funds will be used in four core areas:
1. Expansion of Ajaib’s product offering – In 2020, Ajaib plans to build out its consumer and SME products. This includes the launch of a loan product for SMEs which is expected to help millions of unbanked businesses gain access to finance from trusted financial institutions;
2. Strengthening the engineering team – The engineering team will be expanded so that they can develop better features faster with increased efficiency;
3. Enhancing customer experience – Improving and personalizing customer experience is part of Ajaib’s core value proposition and as such, this fresh capital will enable them to explore ways to provide better user experience across its product offerings;
4. Investing in homegrown tech – With this fresh injection of capital, Ajaib can invest more heavily in homegrown technology solutions that create efficiencies and ensure flexibility going forward so that they remain agile and responsive constantly changing fintech landscape.
Impact of Ribbit Capital’s Investment
Ajaib, a financial technology company, recently secured a $65M Series A extension led by Ribbit Capital, which increased the round’s total to $90M. The investment will help Ajaib to grow and expand its operations.
This article will explore the impact of Ribbit Capital’s investment for Ajaib.
Increased global reach
The investment from Ribbit Capital will provide Ajaib with an immense opportunity for growth. Leveraging Ribbit’s global network, Ajaib will be able to expand its operations internationally, increasing its customer base and brand recognition.
This increased global reach will also help Ajaib tap into different markets, allowing them to explore innovative products and services that cater to individual consumer needs on a larger scale. Furthermore, this increased access to global markets opens up infinite possibilities for Ajaib regarding product development and research. The company now has access to vast amounts of data which can lead to informed decisions about technological advancements and new developments in the financial industry.
Improved customer experience
Ribbit Capital’s investment will help Ajaib to improve its customer experience. The funds from the investment will be used to hire more staff, develop new technology, and bring on new resources to deliver an enhanced user experience.
Moreover, these investments can be used to amplify the customer service functions, like setting up robust support systems for customers and providing them with a better platform for communication with the company. This will help Ajaib keep current customers happy and provide a better incentive for potential customers, who may have been deterred previously due to poor customer service offerings.
Additionally, Ribbit Capital’s investments can assist in developing user-friendly experiences that would make it easier and faster to use Ajaib products. This increased efficiency can result in higher customer satisfaction and retention rates by improving the overall user experience.
Expansion of Ajaib’s product offerings
Ribbit Capital’s recent investment into Ajaib provides an array of possibilities to the young fintech brand, from mobilizing and digitizing existing financial services to offering new digital solutions tailored for a new generation. Notably, the partnership will allow Ajaib to expand its product offerings and deepen and strengthen its financial solutions for users in ways that weren’t previously possible.
One key focus will be enhancing Ajaib’s retail investing platform, which has long been a core product for the firm. With Ribbit’s backing and expertise in fintech, Ajaib can leverage its proprietary technology stack to become even more competitive in the online investing ecosystem. This could include providing access to new types of investments such as ETFs and mutual funds and advanced trading options such as margin loans and automated investment portfolios tailored specifically for retail investors.
In addition, by leaning on connections with established legacy financial institutions in India — many of which were formed just after India achieved independence — Ajaib may also be able drive more innovation through collaboration with larger companies while expanding its customer base. These partnerships could go beyond mere access to products or services; they could open up entirely new opportunities — such as developing cutting-edge solutions focused on capital efficiency, liquidity management and fraud insurance –all essential components for building a thriving online ecosystem for investors and traders alike.
In sum, with Ribbit Capital’s increase in focus on global markets like India comes greater complexity too — but also unprecedented opportunities for both growth-stage startups like Ajaib and large traditional players looking to enter into digital finance. This is especially true when contemplating regulatory changes where platforms like Ajaib have an opportunity to remain competitive and take advantage of market gaps by providing customers access to intuitive products.
Conclusion
The $65M Series A extension round led by Ribbit Capital and increasing the round’s total to $90M, marks a significant achievement in Ajaib’s journey towards providing innovative digital financial solutions to its customers.
This investment aims to support Ajaib’s ongoing expansion in the region and further its mission of transforming people’s financial lives.