Cicil, a Fin-tech Startup, Became the Winner of the 2019 VEI

Visa lately awarded a startup company called Cicil as the winner of the 2019 Visa Everywhere Initiative (VEI) competition in Indonesia. This startup itself is based on Google Launchpad Accelerator and focuses on making it easier for Indonesian students to pay tuition and purchase learning equipment.

Cicil won the championship and received a total of IDR 350 million prizes after competing with five other finalists in proposing a technology-based solution to the panel of judges at the annual Visa Indonesia Client Forum, in Nusa Dua, Bali through a press release.

According to the President Director of Visa Indonesia, Riko Abdurrahman, the Visa Everywhere Initiative itself is a global innovation program that embraces startups to overcome future challenges in the payment and trade sectors, develop their product offerings, and offer long-term vision solutions for partner networks.

Since 2015, the Visa Everywhere Initiative has presented a variety of long-term vision solutions to overcome future challenges in the fields of trade and payment. This program has been implemented in more than 100 countries and was participated by more than 6,000 startup companies from all over the world.

VEI Program in Indonesia Received 63 Proposals from Startups

The Indonesian VEI program has received 63 proposals submitted by more than 40 startup companies, both new and established companies in the fin-tech sector. The fin-tech startups which are allowed to participate in this program should have more than USD 2.5 billion funds in total.

The challenges that must be answered by the program participants in Indonesia are as follows: First of all, how startups help expand financial services for consumers and traders who do not have access to banking and are underserved in the country.

Second, how startups develop cross-country remittance services that can facilitate the Indonesian people in sending and receiving funds. Third, how startups support businesses in managing and facilitating trade as well as domestic and international business payment flows.

“VEI is designed to provide the best fin-tech companies the opportunity to access Visa technology and expertise. Thus, they can improve their ability to work with banks and other clients in serving the community. In return, it can help grow the economy,” said Riko.

Cicil’s Co-Founder: Support from Large Companies like Visa Is Meaningful

Meanwhile, Cicil’s co-founder, Leslie Lim, explained that the support of large companies like Visa was very meaningful, especially for startups. “We are very glad to have the opportunity to collaborate with Visa and all of its banking partners,” she added.

Leslie also said that her party hoped to be able to improve the company’s capabilities and reach more people who do not have access to banking yet. Then, Cicil can serve them in the future. On the other hand, KlikDaily also received an award in this program.

KlikDaily is a provider of supply chain ecosystems in the technology sector. It has been awarded as the favorite winner of the Indonesian VEI audience choice. Mariska Adriana as COO of Klikdaily said that VEI is a very good program for startups. Visa needs to hold this program every year.