Enliven EWA Services, Halofina Presents Halogaji for Company Employees

The list of startups entering the earned wage access (EWA) segment in Indonesia continues to grow, this time it’s Halofina‘s turn to present Halogaji. In fact, this solution has been around since August 2021 and has started to become the company’s main focus after starting its service as a financial planning application.

Halofina Co-Founder & CEO Adjie Wicaksana explained that his company’s interest in starting Halogaji can be seen from the fact that currently there are still many segments of society who are struggling to cope with daily cash flow. Not infrequently the result is that they are forced to take loans to non-bank institutions with high interest rates.

“We see this segment is big and so something we need to provide solutions. Based on our internal research, EWA can be an option that can help cash flow and prevent people from getting high-interest loans,” he explained.

Just like other EWA startups, access to early salary disbursement is intended for employees who have been registered by the company. Each withdrawal will not be charged with interest, but an administrative fee.

The striking differentiation of Halogaji is the application of the sharia concept to the entire process. In other words, far from the element of usury, transparency regarding the profit-sharing system, and other principles in sharia.

“Employees can see the balance which reflects how many working days have been carried out. Then, you can withdraw the salary through the application. The source of funds can be from companies or third parties from Halogaji who provide short-term bailouts.”

Halogaji Target Users

There is no mention of the current number of Halogaji users. However, Adjie said that his business growth increased by 130% on a monthly basis since it was first launched.

The target users are not limited to any economy class. Although currently the company is targeting employees from the lower-middle economy, in the future it will expand to the upper-middle through the Smart Savings feature.

This step also makes Halogaji no longer just an EWA, but as a financial wellness employee because it encourages people to regularly save which is directly integrated with their salary. Users can get financial benefits up to four times when compared to bank deposit interest.

“So not only with EWA for emergency funds, employees can build better savings habits through the latest features that we will release at the end of the first quarter.”

He believes the growth potential of EWA in Indonesia will be much faster than now, given the large lower-middle working population. This condition is reflected by the same conditions in the global market, EWA players are also booming seeing the working population continues to grow.

Therefore, so that EWA continues to be in line with the needs of users, Adjie sees the main key is building an ecosystem. “By building an ecosystem, where payment needs and purchases of goods and services can be integrated, making it easier for users to use their salary allocations for daily needs.”

Plan A New Fund Round

With this new line, Halofina plans to open a fresh fundraiser to be more expansive in building its products. “Still not sure about the scheme, but the plan is that at the end of the first quarter it will be fundraising again.”

The company last announced its initial funding with an undisclosed amount in 2019. The round was led by Mandiri Capital Indonesia, with participation from Finch Capital, Plug and Play Asia Pacific, and Rekanext.

Historically, EWA players have only been present in Indonesia since the pandemic. All players have pocketed fresh funding from investors.

Examples of business solution platforms that are still related to financial services include MSME enablers, wealth management or wealth-tech, as well as access to loans and finance for employees or earned wage access (EWA).