Amaan App Encourages Micro-Women to Advance to Class

Amaan’s C-Levels, including Mulia Salim, Johny Ng, Ratih Rachmawaty, and Taras Siregar Amaan, present Islamic financial solution features as an “entry point”, supported by pillars of shopping, education, and health services.

Sharia-based services and capacity building for women, especially in the micro segment, have a significant role in driving Indonesia’s economic growth. Since the last few years, startup activists have begun to explore business models and innovations to accommodate the needs in this segment.

Ratih Rachmawaty, Mulia Salim, and Taras Siregar also explored with their years of experience in the Islamic banking industry. Finally, they became directors of BTPN Syariah, one of the leading Islamic banks that has been listed on the stock exchange.

The trio together with Johny Ng, an IT professional, founded Amaan, a sharia digital platform for micro women entrepreneurs. Today, March 8, 2021, Amaan is even a year operating.

Amaan is positioned as a platform beyond financial services which currently serves consumers in six provinces (Banten, West Java, Central Java, East Java, South Sumatra, and Lampung), 100 districts and 1700 sub-districts.

What services does the company provide and how is it positioned in the market? To answer this question, DailySocial had the opportunity to talk with the Amaan team, represented by Head of Go-to-Market Strategy Herman Haryanto, Head of People & Culture Fitri Dianasari, and Digital Product Lead Ahmad Zarkasi.

Amaan’s Stance

Amaan was incubated and built approximately two years ago, starting from ideas, business models, platforms, to recruitment of relevant talents. According to the Founder of Amaan, this idea was born from their experience serving the micro nano segment.

They see that there are still many business actors who have limited capital to build a business and not many can accommodate this need. In fact, many MSMEs are run and owned by women.

Based on a report from the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs, there are currently 64.19 million MSMEs in Indonesia, of which 99.92% are businesses in the micro and small segments.

Of this total, around 34% of medium-sized businesses are run by women, while 56% of small businesses and 52% of micro-enterprises are owned by women. This explains why in the early stages Amaan entered through financial solutions services by becoming a financing agent.

Amaan is an extension of financial institutions in opening access to financing for micro women entrepreneurs. Amaan carries out the function of a financing agent as an entry point which is the forerunner of Amaan to boost other services.

Along the way, the founders of Amaan discovered that female MSME actors do not only need access to financing or financial services.

“Our founders have always emphasized that financial institutions are definitely needed. But our society needs more than just access to finance. They need other aspects that enable them to reach the level of ‘whole human beings’, insan kamil,” Fitri said.

This condition encourages the development of Amaan’s business not only in the financial sector, but also in other needs for these micro women entrepreneurs.

Financing Agent in the Digital Financial Innovation category

Amaan is listed as a financing agent in the OJK Digital Financial Innovation (IKD) category. The company launched for the first time to coincide with International Women’s Day, which is March 8, 2021, a day that is considered to be an important momentum to encourage the empowerment of women entrepreneurs in Indonesia.

Amaan provides various features other than financial solutions, namely, Shopping, Healthy Talk, Learning, and Promotional Forum features.

All of these services are designed with the hope of realizing the three main goals of women micro entrepreneurs, namely sending their children to the highest level, owning/renovating a dream house, and going for hajj/umrah.

Fitri and Zarkasi explained further regarding the development of other products or services. All of these services are designed based on consumer research and the problems they face in the field. The Amaan app is now available for Android users and has been downloaded more than a million times. The rating of the app is on a scale of 4.3.