Seeing Ajaib Efforts Become the App of Choice for Retail Investors

Within two years, Ajaib managed to become the first unicorn in the investment or wealth tech sector in Southeast Asia.

Starting his journey with mutual funds, Ajaib’s growth shot far when it launched a stock asset class in mid-March 2020, none other than because of the blessing of the birth of many young investors in the midst of the pandemic.

The approach taken is different from similar peers who tend to adopt a strategy of deepening the product range of mutual funds, or enriching the asset class to other instruments, such as gold or cryptocurrencies in introducing investment to novice investors.

In a media gathering held by Ajaib some time ago, it was revealed that now Ajaib users have reached more than 1.4 million people.

Around 96% of them are novice investors with a composition of 90% coming from a young age and the rest are gen Z. Then, about 60% of users are active who have a stock portfolio in Ajaib and trade in it.

Director of Stock Brokerage Ajaib Sekuritas Anna Lora explained, the increase in users is also reflected in the transaction volume of 30 billion per month and 5 million transactions.

Before the company acquired Primasia Sekuritas (now known as Ajaib Sekuritas) the monthly transaction value was in the range of IDR 1 trillion-IDR 2 trillion, once it was acquired by Ajaib, the figure has now grown rapidly to IDR 6 trillion-IDR 8 trillion.

Application for Novice Investors

In accordance with the company’s mission to be known as a friendly application for novice retail investors, all strategies and products of Ajaib need to be aligned. Ajaib VP of Product Aurora Marsye said the Ajaib application was fully designed to make it easier for novice investors to enter the world of stocks.

Features such as 100% online account registration in minutes; no minimum investment and open an account without initial deposit; comprehensive chart display, in-depth technical and fundamental analysis; and various educational materials and discussion forums, are some of the mainstay features to attract young people.

“We remove the barriers that have been preventing young investors from entering the stock market. With these various facilities, the capital that new users need to prepare is quite bold,”said Aurora.

Although the application is made as friendly as possible for users, Ajaib still prioritizes the education side considering that stock investments are classified as high-risk high return investments.

One approach that is often taken is to hold regular trainings by utilizing social media platforms that many young people visit every day.

Strategies to Attract Investors

“Because the target is retail investors, we see where they are playing, now they are playing a lot on social media. We approach them, pick up the ball. We believe that all parties will also take this strategy to make it easier for users to reach,” added Anna.

This step, he continued, is part of the company’s strategy to improve the literacy quality of stock investors. According to him, an increase in quantity is important, but maintaining the quality of users is equally important.

In Indonesia itself, the ratio of the number of capital market investors to the population is still far unequal. As of November 2021, KSEI recorded 7.1 million capital market investors, up 84% from the same period in the previous year of 3.27 people.

Of the total investors, 99.51% are retail investors which are dominated by the age group under 40 years with 59.81%. Unfortunately, he could not elaborate further on the characteristics of Ajaib users, whether they are investors or traders, to the style and average allocation of funds in investing.

Everything is mixed because it all comes down to the [preference] of each investor. At Ajaib, the portion under management between mutual funds and stocks is even, concluded Anna.

It also includes plans to add other asset classes, after annexing 24% of Bank Bumi Artha’s shares. Anna just ensures that this strategic move will make it easier for Ajaib to develop more products in the future.