Nium Startup Becomes the First Unicorn-Global B2B Payments

“Just like what MDI Ventures’ subsidiary has done, which invests in various potential startups. One of the potential startups supported by MDI Ventures is Nium,” said Ririek Adriansyah, President Director of Telkom, Friday (30/7/2021).

PT Telkom Indonesia (Persero) Tbk carries out various strategic initiatives including investment to support and develop startups. This is in order to increase the value of the company.

A series D funding with total of 200 Million USD was announced by startup Nium. This investment was led by Riverwood Capital.

The total funds raised by this startup with the additional Series D funding reached nearly US$300 million. They also recorded a valuation of over US$1 billion. “This makes Nium the first B2B payment unicorn from Southeast Asia,” said Ririek.

Previously Received Funding from MDI Ventures in 2018

Previously, Nium, which was originally called InstaReM, is a global financial services platform based in Singapore, which received funding from MDI Ventures in the Series C round in October 2018.

This investment was meant to support Nium in becoming a local partner in their expansion in Indonesia, by providing a platform and securing Indonesian payment licenses to operating B2B remittance services.

TelkomGroup is also proud of Nium for becoming the next new unicorn in Southeast Asia. Startup Nium has been receiving funding from Telkom subsidiary ccompany since 2018.

“Nium’s success is proof that TelkomGroup’s strategy to support the digital ecosystem through potential startups, both locally and globally, is starting to show positive results,” said Ririek.

Indonesian companies can take advantage of the Nium platform hrough TelkomGroup and MDI Ventures to conduct financial transactions from anywhere in the world through a single platform.

Donald Wihardja, CEO of MDI Ventures, added that from Nium’s achievements, TelkomGroup through MDI Ventures has proven its ability to invest, oversee, and support startups to become unicorns.

Of course, this is also strongly supported by market sentiment that accelerates digitization and investment sentiment that remains optimistic in supporting technology startups.

“Hopefully, it will be a good start for us as a Corporate Venture Capital that will not only contribute to TelkomGroup’s synergy revenue but also ‘breeding new unicorns’,” said Donald.

MDI Ventures is a subsidiary company of TelkomGroup. They engage in corporate venture capital. Their business activities consist of investing, synergy, portfolio management, value creation and fundraising.

MDI Ventures Total Investment to Over 50 Startups Worldwide

MDI Ventures has invested in 15 new startups spread across 4 countries in 2020, so that a total of MDI has invested in more than fifty startups in Indonesia and globally.

MDI Ventures has invested in twenty Indonesian startups. In 2021, MDI Ventures will focus on investing in fintech, agritech, logistics, health, new retail, and deep tech.

Other than Nium, MDI Ventures hopes that there will be new unicorns in the near future from local startups under its portfolio.

Meanwhile, Nium Co-founder and CEO Prajit Nanu said that his party founded Nium with a simple goal, namely to eliminate regional complexities in cross-border payments.

“Today, our view is even higher. We believe it can be a global catalyst to advance international trade and remove some of the traditional payment barriers that are holding back business,” he said.

This effort, said Prajit, was carried out through the Nium platform as a B2B payment process that provides financial services so that it can be implemented easily. The goal is to support local market players to become global giants in the future.

In connection with the announcement of the Series D funding round, Nium will use the funds for several purposes, namely expanding payment network infrastructure and encouraging innovative product development. Those goals include, attracting top industry talent, to acquiring technology and strategic companies.