KoinWorks and Bank Sampoerna Launch Neobank Services for MSMEs

Fintech startup KoinWorks and PT Bank Sahabat Sampoerna (Bank Sampoerna) officially launched KoinWorks NEO which is a neobank service for the MSME segment. KoinWorksNEO is claimed to be the first neobank service for MSMEs in Indonesia.

In his official statement, KoinWorks Co-founder & CEO Benedicto Haryono said he wanted to help MSME players who have limited access to financial services through this product. According to him, this situation underlies the cooperation between KoinWorks and Bank Sampoerna.

MSMEs are one of the biggest economic foundations in Indonesia. Despite continuing to experience business growth, MSMEs are a segment that has access to financial services, such as capital and bank accounts in the name of the business.

The company said that only two out of 100 MSMEs received loans for business capital. In addition, there are still many MSMEs that use accounts in their own names so that they are mixed between personal and business needs.

“After going through a long design process and a series of trials, optimistically, we introduce KoinWorks NEO to meet the needs of MSMEs in one application on KoinWorks,” he said.

Have the Same Mission

Both KoinWorks and Bank Sampoerna share the same mission to provide access to financial inclusion, empowerment of MSMEs, and economic equity in Indonesia. Cooperation is considered a strategic step to support MSMEs in the digital banking era.

“Collaboration and digital transformation are absolutely necessary in order to provide effective and efficient services for MSMEs. We are collaborating with KoinWorks to develop a one-stop banking solution for MSMEs,” said Director of Finance and Business Planning of Bank Sampoerna Henky Suryaputra.

Contacted separately, Henky revealed that there was no commitment in the form of investment in this collaboration, but rather the use of each other’s competencies, especially technology.

According to him, the development of KoinWorks NEO was mainly carried out by KoinWorks in coordination with Bank Sampoerna. For your information, KoinWorks was originally established in 2016 as a p2p lending startup with the main focus on MSMEs.

Now KoinWorks has developed into a Super Financial App that offers various other financial services, such as investment and funding. As of October 2021, KoinWorks has 1.139 million users with a total AUM of Rp1.193 trillion.

Digital Banking And Neobank

Talking about neobank, this term is often identified as a digital bank in Indonesia. This seems reasonable considering the rapid growth of financial services and digital banks in recent years.

Based on the definition presented by FinTech Magazine, neobank offers flexibility to various services, including payroll and expense management. In addition, neobank also offers corporate financial solutions to address the challenges faced by MSMEs.

Nubank is an example of a successful Brazilian neobank in the world, and even the largest in Latin America with 38 million users.

The presence of an API helps to integrate business flows with banking requirements. However, neobanks do not have a banking license because they operate by relying on partner banks. As such, they cannot offer traditional banking services.

Meanwhile, digital banks in the direct bank category generally enlarge opportunities for banking services, such as savings and digital loan channeling. This kind of model has been widely adopted by banks in Indonesia.

The average digital bank player in Indonesia currently uses the mini bank acquisition model, transforms it with a new identity, and collaborates synergistically with digital platforms to help accelerate its services, for example Bank Jago with Gojek and Bank Neo Commerce and Akulaku.

Previously, the chairman of the Indonesian Fintech Society (IFSoc) Mirza Adityaswara said that the emergence of neobanks brought various benefits as well as new risks.

Neobank has innovative and customer-centric features, such as AI and machine learning, that can help users access services and manage personal finances.

On the other hand, neobanks are also at great risk of cybersecurity attacks. For example, the risk of leakage of customer personal data to systemic failure caused by the interdependence of digital infrastructure for various financial services.