The bank hopes to help startups and SMEs in the creative sector access capital by cooperating with homegrown digital lending platform Investree.
Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) has announced an invoice financing partnership with peer-to-peer lending marketplace Investree, the bank said in a statement on Wednesday.
Entrepreneurs in the creative industry looking to get working capital loans will not be required to put up traditional forms of collateral.
Instead, BRI lends working capital to startups and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that have formalized business-to-business relationships with other local companies. BRI uses AI and alternative credit checking methods, and can independently analyze funding risks for each potential loan case based on data provided by Investree.
Untapped Ecosystem of Borrowers
In the statement, BRI said that the financial industry is poorly equipped to service entrepreneurs in the creative sector via traditional mechanisms, and called its partnership with Investree a way to «reach an untapped ecosystem of new potential borrowers.»
Indra Utoyo, managing director of Digital Banking and IT, Bank Rakyat Indonesia
«We know there is a gap between banks and several business sectors in Indonesia. We need to work with fintech companies so that we can reach more people, especially MSMEs in the creative sector,» said Indra Utoyo (pictured above), BRI's director of digital technology and operations.
$143 Million Earmarked
BRI has already disbursed more than IDR 200 billion ($14.3 million) in loans on Investree, with a 0 percent non-performing loan rate.
The bank has set aside IDR 2 trillion ($143 million) for digital lending via Investree, the statement said. It noted that it hopes to steer Indonesian creative startups and MSMEs away from loan sharks and unlicensed P2P lending platforms with its digital financial inclusion push.
