Indonesian e-commerce unicorn Bukalapak is teaming up with online lenders Amartha, Modalku, and PohonDana to provide loan facilities for its “kiosk partners”. The new feature is called Modal Mitra (or “partner capital”).
Bukalapak is an online marketplace and claims to have more than 2 million transactions on its platform every day with four million merchants throughout Indonesia. Since 2016, Bukalapak has an offline program in which it works with small kiosks or individuals who want to sell a wider range of products through Bukalapak via at their community stores.
The program, called Mitra Bukalapak, has over 500.000 kiosks and 700.000 individual sellers across Indonesia, according to the firm. Overall, the platform claims to have 50 million active users in Indonesia.
The tie-up with online lenders is designed to help the offline kiosk partner network to grow bigger.
“Modal Mitra can be utilized by kiosk owners as additional capital to buy goods for sale,” said Bukalapak executive Sigit Suryawan in a press statement.
The loans provided through this program range from IDR 1 million (USD 70.57) to IDR 10 million (USD 705)per kiosk, with a loan period of six months. Bukalapak’s kiosk partners can repay the loans in installments, starting at IDR 90,000 (USD 6.35) per week.
Bukalapak’s kiosk partners can apply for loans through the mobile app. The process is fast since the kiosk’s data is already registered in Bukalapak’s system. The data will be forwarded to Bukalapak’s online lending partners. “In the future, we hope to work with more parties who share the same spirit with us to support the growth of the Indonesian economy,” said Sigit.
Amartha, Modalku, and PohonDana are among the most established online lenders in Indonesia and have specialized in small business loans.
Editor: Nadine Freischlad