Amar Bank, an Indonesian commercial and digital bank backed by Singapore-based conglomerate Tolaram has purchased an 18.4 percent minority position in Investree Group, the parent company for fintech lender Investree.
The fintech firm plans to leverage the purchase to develop its finance offerings and provide MSMEs in Indonesia with more comprehensive digital business solutions.
The project, according to Adrian Gunadi, head of Investree Group, intends to foster cooperation between fintech businesses and banks as well as broaden the company’s access to potential borrowers in Amar Bank’s network cities.
Tunaiku, the bank’s digital lending product, and Senyumku, its mobile-only banking platform, are presently available.
Investree is a loan platform for SMEs that caters to both traditional and Shariah-compliant firms.
Netbank, a Philippine banking-as-a-service platform, teamed up with Investree last year to create a loan services product for SMEs in the Philippines. This was part of the latter’s drive to form partnerships with regional digital banks to help fund such businesses.
Other lenders in the Indonesian market have started buying local bank interests as well. FinAccel recently purchased a controlling share in publicly traded Bank Bisnis Internasional, while Funding Societies and Carro just announced their investment in Bank Index.
