Fintech Brick Will Expand after Receiving Funds from Better Tomorrow

Financial technology startup (fintech), Brick obtained seed funding from a fintech fund based in Silicon Valley, United States (US), Better Tomorrow Ventures. This inter-application integration service provider or application programming interface (API) also plans to expand the market to Southeast Asia.

Other investors involved in the funding are PT Prasetia Dwidharma, 1982 Ventures, Antler, Rally Cap Ventures. Meanwhile, individual investors (angel investors) who participated were Shefali Roy from TrueLayer, Kunal Shah from Cred, Reynold Wijaya from Modalku, Quek Siu Rui from Carousell, as well as founders of Nium, Xfers, Aspire, BukuWarung, ZenRooms, and CareemPay.

CEO Brick Gavin Tan said the company wanted to expand its market to other countries in the region. “We want to empower the next generation of fintech companies with an infrastructure that is easy to implement, cost-effective and inclusive,” he said in a press release, Thursday (18/3).

He considered, Southeast Asia’s business potential is very large. In addition, the region’s fintech industry is growing rapidly. Nearly half of the total population or around 200 million people do not have bank accounts but understand digital services.

Many People have not been Touched by Financial Services

Based on research entitled ‘Fulfilling its Promise – The Future of Southeast Asia’s Digital Financial Services’, there are 92 million adults in Indonesia who have not been touched by financial services. The number is more than half of the adult population of 182 million.

Meanwhile, a report by Google, Temasek, and Bain and Company entitled eConomy 2021 shows that regional fintech businesses grew in almost all categories during the corona pandemic, except for financing (lending).

In the midst of this huge potential, Gavin considers that fintech in the region is not yet supported by modern infrastructure. “From what we see, fintech is built on old infrastructure which increases the complexity and cost of implementation,” he said.

With the presence of infrastructure services such as adequate APIs, fintech will get a comprehensive view of the financial health of users. The API also makes it easy to share data securely.

Brick builds a modern infrastructure that allows fintech and other tech companies to embed features into applications. Gavin said his startup has provided inclusive financial services to nearly 140 million adults in the country.

In Indonesia, Brick is compatible with more than 90% of bank accounts. In addition, it collaborates with more than 250 developers, 35 technology companies and fintech clients. General Partner at Better Tomorrow Ventures Sheel Mohnot assessed that the demand for API services in the archipelago is very high.

The regulations are also considered ideal for companies like Brick. “Fintech innovation in Southeast Asia is still in its infancy. It cannot exist without a good data infrastructure,” said Sheel. Therefore, Better Tomorrow Ventures considers Brick’s business potential to be huge.

Bank Indonesia Encourages Banks and Fintech Collaboration

Last year, Bank Indonesia (BI) issued an Open API standard to encourage banking and fintech collaboration. Open API is a programming application that allows companies to integrate between systems or system to system. BI said the standard would increase the efficiency of the transaction and payment system.

In addition, it is able to increase innovation and competition, financial inclusion, and reduce and mitigate risks. It paved the way for the adoption of finance in the next few years. Brick will work with BI and the Financial Services Authority (OJK).

Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) Ventures invited Brick to participate in the very selective Sembrani Wira accelerator program. Brick will work with Bank BRI to jointly create an innovative and inclusive fintech infrastructure. Bank BRI is known to have the largest bank consumer base in Indonesia.

“With the increase in digital banking, we see open banking and API partnerships as keys to success in the digital world. We believe this is just the beginning, and we look forward to collaborating with Brick in the future,” said Markus Rahardja, Head of Sembrani and VP Investment & BD BRI Ventures.