Amartha Startup Become More Open after Its CEO’s Appointment as President’s Staff

President Joko Widodo has chosen seven millennials to be his special staff. One of Jokowi’s special staff is Amartha’s Chief Executive, Andi Taufan Garuda Putra. Amartha itself is an online loan startup founded by Andi after returning from his study at the Harvard Kennedy School of Public Administration, United States.

Amartha was founded in 2010. This startup is registered as a company under the name of PT Amartha Mikro Fintek in the Financial Services Authority (OJK). Previously, the company was reluctant to open up about investors who are behind it. But, it changed after Andi’s assignment.

It was reported that Amartha has received several injections from investors. According to Crunchbase’s page, Amartha’s funding status is Early Stage Venture. The last type of funding was Series A. And Amartha received its latest investment injection on March 7, 2017, after turning into a startup.

In the past nine years, Amartha has received twice funding or investment. Before the Series A funding in March two years ago, Amartha has first received an investor injection on September 26, 2016, with the type of Seed Round funding.

Different Types of Funding Done by Amartha

The Seed Round type of funding is an initial investment of a startup. Usually, this funding is used to strengthen the startup base. On the other hand, Series A funding is an investment done by a startup that has reached a mature business model.

Before reaching the Series A funding, there are stages of funding namely Angel Investor or Angel Round. Based on the Crunchbase page, Amartha has received injections from six investors until today. On the Seed Round Funding, the startup got capital from the Graduate Syndicate.

Then, for the Series A funding two years ago, Amartha’s investors include Mandiri Capital Indonesia, Bank Mandiri, MidPlaza, BEENEXT, and Lynx Asia Partners. The company itself currently has 250-500 employees and has transformed into a startup while it was initially created into a micro-financial institution.

Amartha itself is one of the startups engaged in financial technology, especially in the sector of peer to peer lending (P2P). P2P is a financial technology service that “matches” investors with borrowers. This platform provides business loans with sources of funds from anyone interested in lending money to others.

By becoming investors in the platform, they will benefit in the form of interest. Then, how about the appointment of Andi Taufan as the special staff? Public Relations Manager of Amartha Fin-tech said that Andi is still the CEO of the startup despite his new role.

Amartha Recently Won the Best Sharia Fin-Tech Startup

Meanwhile, Amartha recently won the 2019 Republika Sharia Award as Fin-tech with the best Micro Business Financing in the Sharia Fin-tech category. Amartha is considered to play an important role in the sharia industry. It has encouraged economic growth, improved people’s welfare, and eroded social as well as economic inequalities.

This is the second time Amartha has received the award. Amartha’s Vice President of Operations, Medi Triyanto, said that previously Amartha had won the Special Fintech Sharia Award in 2017.”Our mission has never changed. It was to alleviate poverty and encourage women’s participation,” he said.

He continued that the startup would continue to prioritize the principles and ethics of Islamic lending so that Amartha’s business partners could improve their economy. In this case, Amartha will continue to develop products to meet the needs of Amartha’s lenders and business partners.

The award should motivate Amartha to be better. “Since Amartha has been rapidly growing, we strive to continue to answer the needs of the community through financial technology. At this time, Amartha has reached Sulawesi and Sumatra islands. Previously, Amartha had reached the island of Java since 2010,” he concluded.