Indepay Comes to Offer a ‘Social Commerce’ Experience in Fintech

Seeing this issue, Indepay is here to offer an open transfer platform designed to drive the transformation of the digital payment industry using real-time transfer technology between users.

The Covid-19 pandemic has prompted significant changes in people’s behavior, from conventional to all-digital. Bank Indonesia recorded that the value of transactions with electronic money reached IDR 25.4 trillion in July 2021.

That number increased 5% from the previous month which amounted to IDR 24.1 trillion. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s payment system is said to be still in the early stages of development, 80% of existing bank accounts have not been fully digitized.

“We are building an Open API-based transaction platform by bringing banks closer to consumers to drive the transformation of the digital payments landscape with real-time account-to-account transfers,” wrote Indepay Co-Founder & CEO Rajib Saha.

The company is said to have had a thriving partner ecosystem built around member banks that makes transfers both as a consumer and a business efficient, at a low cost, and leading to endless possibilities.

Intrinsically, this platform maps the mobile number with the customer’s bank account as a unique payment identity for a faster & safer account-to-account transfer experience called Pay-ID.

This system will empower users to build a digital reputation and help maintain security and approval-based control over their financial data.

Open finance-based services in Indonesia are currently being developed. The issue is the same, because of the consumer’s need for more seamless access to financial services.

Aims to Realize the Concept of a Cashless Society

In the next three years, the company targets to digitize at least 100 million Indonesian customers and facilitate 1 billion transactions per month.

Currently, Indepay’s offices are located in Jakarta, Singapore and Gurgaon, but the team admits that currently, they are only focusing on the Indonesian market. Going forward, the company plans to expand to other countries in Southeast Asia, as well as India.

In terms of external funding, currently, Indepay has been supported by BEENEXT and T8 Capital Partners. Without elaborating on funding details, Rajib said that his team was still in the process of closing this round with additional funds from several other investors.

BEENEXT Founder & CEO Teruhide Sato said, “We have invested in various fintech startups around the world, and we see that the presence of digital interbank transfers is increasingly driving the growth of the digital economy in every country.”

Indepay’s open transfer platform positions itself as a digital payment option with an interactive social commerce experience to facilitate faster transfers, payments and receipts of orders.

This effort is expected to open up new opportunities for startups, fintech companies, brands, MSME players, and micro sellers to jointly realize the concept of a cashless society.

Focus on Reaching Online Business Actors

On September 17, 2021, Indepay officially launched the tara.app application. Using the Indepay transfer platform, tara.app is a social interactive trading facility, aimed at D2C business players, such as brands, micro-merchants, stalls, and retailers.

High payment fees and transfer fees are the main obstacles in the development of the startup ecosystem in Indonesia.

Rajib Saha also said, “tara.app in collaboration with the Indepay team in Jakarta will be a disruptor in this industry. Our integration with various banks and financial institutions will open up exciting opportunities for Indonesia.”

The presence of technology platforms such as Indepay is becoming increasingly crucial to encourage MSME-based economies such as Indonesia to carry out digital transformation.

Several recent studies and research also show the increasingly widespread use of the internet and changes in user behavior towards online buying and selling activities on social media.

This shows the increasing popularity of social interactive commerce activities or online interaction-based commerce, both through short message applications and social media.

In the process, tara.app works by mapping the user’s cellphone number with the bank accounts they have as a Unique Pay-ID.