We are delighted to announce Horizons Ventures and Alpha JWC have jointly led the Series A round in Ajaib, Indonesia’s fastest-growing financial services startup. The investment further bolsters Horizons Ventures’ and Alpha JWC’s strategy of investing in promising early stage companies to provide capital and help these companies grow.
Ajaib provides a comprehensive set of digital financial products including savings accounts, currency exchange, customer analytic services, international remittance and offers investment products such as mutual funds. These digital financial products aim to simplify Indonesians’ access to financial services by providing impetus towards digitalizing banking processes.
We are excited to support the strong team behind Ajaib leveragings its proven track record of launching innovative technologies with massive user traction. We also look forward to collaborating with Ajaib to drive growth and ensure successful execution of their strategy while testing new business models across emerging markets with higher yield alternatives and greater customer experience overall within Financial Services.
Overview of Horizons Ventures and Alpha JWC
Horizons Ventures and Alpha JWC are two leading venture capital firms based in Southeast Asia that have recently partnered to lead a series A investment round in Ajaib Group. The investment round was reportedly worth $25M and marks an exciting development for the Ajaib Group as it looks to expand its regional operations.
In this article, we’ll briefly examine both Horizons Ventures and Alpha JWC, along with the reasons behind their interest in investing in Ajaib.
Background of Horizons Ventures
Horizons Ventures is the venture capital arm of the personal investment vehicle of Mr. Li Ka-shing, a well-known Hong Kong business magnate, investor, and philanthropist known affectionately as “Superman” in Hong Kong.
Since its establishment in 2001, Horizons Ventures has invested over $3 billion, focusing on early to late stage investments across US and Asia. Its areas of interest include digital media, consumer internet/mobile, healthcare and fintech. Some of its most successful companies include AI semiconductor company Cerebras Systems; software automation provider UiPath; e-commerce platform Wish; car-hailing application Uber; four mobile applications developed by 4WEB group including Social Car (a car sharing app for Uber users); travel search engine Skyscanner; biometric security company BioCatch and DVD rental company Netflix Inc. It also has an active presence in startup accelerators and incubator programs including Alpha JWC and Techstars.
Horizons Ventures often works closely with investor partners such as Angel Investors – Edmund Tse Siu Chung and IFC (part of World Bank Group), Softbank Investment Advisors (SBA) Japan, Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s GSVC fund, Chrysalix and Windforce Mutual Fund amongst others.
Overview of Alpha JWC
Alpha JWC Ventures is a venture capital and private equity firm founded in 2014 by Kim Po — the former Head of Bank Mandiri Takab, and his business partner J. William (Bill) Yu, a finance and operations-focused tech entrepreneur. The firm invests in various stages, from pre-seed through Series B, focusing on technology startups with differentiated models or innovative products/services such as fintech and digital media/content companies targeting Indonesia.
Alpha JWC has a team of experienced investors who actively help founders build their businesses. In addition, the AlphaJWC Jakarta office has support from Singapore based Horizon Ventures helping identify top startups across the region for potential investment.
The fund focuses on early-stage companies’ investments, emphasizing seed investments where the highest returns are typically achieved. AlphaJWC has made over 25 investments to date including fintech companies like Ajaib online broker service, travel e-commerce Tokopedia, online marketplace Shopee, content monetization company IDN Media and others such as Voyagin Tours & Activities marketplace acquired by Rakuten Group in mid 2019.
Indonesian investment platform Ajaib gets $25 million Series A led by Horizons Venture and Alpha JWC
Ajaib Group announced that it has closed a $25 million Series A funding round led by Horizons Ventures, the venture arm of Li Ka-Shing, and joined by Alpha JWC.
Ajaib is a financial technology startup that enables direct investments in equities, Islamic funds, and other products from partner banks and brokerages in Indonesia. The funds will expand the company’s operations and customer base in Indonesia.
Overview of Ajaib Group
Ajaib Group is a regional Neo-challenger Bank, operating in ASEAN countries via its digital wealth management platform. It provides users a full suite of digital banking products, including an efficient and user-friendly mobile browser and app interface.
Founded in 2019, Ajaib Group is Southeast Asia’s fastest growing financial services platform with an 18 million strong subscriber base across 6 key markets: Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines and India. The company has achieved profitability faster than many of its peers due to its ability to quickly and effectively scale.
Ajaib Group has managed to stay ahead of the competition by constantly innovating on their product offerings and improving security features such as 2-Factor Authentication and biometric identification. Their platform also provides customer support around the clock with chatbot integration providing quick responses when needed. As an emerging leader in financial technology solutions, they are well positioned to capitalize on the rapid growth of consumer demand for digital banking solutions across Southeast Asia.
This strategic Series A investment will help Ajaib Groups expand into new markets while bolstering their technology infrastructure, producing customer-focused products such as savings goal planning tools and HNW advisory products , and strengthening their core mobile capabilities such as payment processing and biometric authentication . Ultimately this funding round will help set the stage for further organic growth in terms of market share gain throughout the region .
Details of the Series A Investment
Horizons Ventures and Alpha JWC are delighted to announce their participation in the Series A investment in the fintech platform Ajaib Group. The pair will be leading the A round alongside Quantum Strategic Partners, an investment company owned by the family of hedge fund tycoon George Soros.
The capital raised in this round of funding will accelerate product development, further expand its customer base, and unlock more value for customers. Ajaib Group is a digital financial services platform that provides useful insights and real-time, differentiated investments through its innovative risk management capabilities and portfolio optimization tools.
With a focus on technology-enabled simplicity, transparency & access to all users, Ajaib aims to help people make smart & better decisions while protecting them from making bad decisions they may regret later on. Through this key objective of ‘simplicity by design’, the company hopes to bring a transformative new way of investing to retail customers unfamiliar with investing.
At Horizons Ventures & Alpha JWC, we have been inspired by the growth potential of Ajaib’s team, their vision for tomorrow’s investment landscape and their continuing commitment to customer success & security. We look forward to enabling them to achieve even greater heights with our partnerships focused on delivering true societal impact globally both from venture capital and from providing first-class service solutions going forward.
Statement from Horizons Ventures and Alpha JWC
Horizons Ventures and Alpha JWC Ventures are excited to announce that we led the Series A investment in Ajaib Group. Founded in 2018, this digital-only venture of banks, securities, and investments is the largest and fastest-growing full-stack financial services platform in Indonesia, offering various products such as mobile banking, stocks trading, mutual funds, online deposits, retail loans and insurance through its digital banking app called ‘Ajaib’. Ajaib has already achieved tremendous growth within 3 years since its launch.
We believe that Ajaib has immense potential to become one of the leading players in this market. With their unique business model and cutting edge technology enabled solutions they have grown at an unprecedented rate in such a short period. We are looking forward to partnering with the management and their team as they continue on their mission of making financial services more accessible for everyone through a simple and intuitive mobile experience irrespective of geographical boundaries or economic class or gender. This aligns with our vision of uniting the world financially through innovation -evangelizing the digitization of finances across Southeast Asia and other emerging markets worldwide.
Impact of the Investment
Ajaib Group secured a $25M Series A funding round led by Horizon Ventures and Alpha JWC. This significant investment is set to have immense economic and strategic impacts on the Ajaib Group. The subsequent influx of capital will provide the Ajaib Group with the resources necessary to purchase necessary assets and drive growth.
Furthermore, the investment also marks the start of a strategic partnership between Ajaib and its two investors, Horizon Ventures and Alpha JWC. Let’s discuss the implications of this investment further.
Benefits for Ajaib Group
Announced in August 2019, the Series A funding Horizons Ventures and Alpha JWC Investments, participated in will benefit the Ajaib Group. The combination of Horizons Ventures, who led the investment, and Alpha JWC Investments provides a strong backbone to the investment. Horizon Ventures is Asia’s pre-eminent venture capital firm with expertise in early-stage investments across technology, media, telecommunications, and consumer services. Moreover, Alpha JWC Ventures has experience investing in high-growth consumer internet and enterprise software companies such as Go-Jek and Tokopedia.
The investment marks an important milestone for Ajaib Group which has seen strong growth over recent months as it continues to expand its reach throughout Southeast Asia. Specifically this funding will enable Ajaib group to further advance its mission of being a transformational company providing better financial lives for more people within Indonesia. The funds can be used to continue expanding their footprint through local marketing activities and further building out their team of financial professionals Serving millions of Indonesians who have limited access to investments this fund will accelerate the development of digital financial services that bridge gaps between customers who are poor or unbanked but are increasingly looking for better services online.
This investment round follows several previous financing rounds from venture capital firms including Convergence Ventures, 500 Startups Indonesia Seed Fund IIand GreeNxt Capital Partners Saratoga.
Impact on the Investment Ecosystem
Horizons Ventures and Alpha JWC’s investments in Ajaib are great news for the investment ecosystem. By leading a Series A investment of $14M, they’re helping to encourage start-ups to apply innovative technology and digital solutions to revolutionize the financial ecosystem in Indonesia. This is a major boost for investors and innovators who have yet to reap the benefits of the developing industry. In addition, it gives entrepreneurs and investors more confidence in their abilities and resources, which will result in more development opportunities shortly.
The capital injection by Horizons Ventures and Alpha JWC will be beneficial directly and indirectly due to collaborations with existing players that can leverage each other’s resources, expertise, userbases or even customers into new areas of business expansion. In addition, through strategic partnerships, even smaller start-ups have growth opportunities. In other words, this investment may catalyze a new wave of startups and re-energize those already existing which could help develop an improved startup environment across the year.
In addition to boosting confidence levels within Indonesia’s startup ecosystems, this Series A injection will offer ample opportunity for regional startups looking to expand their businesses abroad or aspiring entrepreneurs hoping to tap into new markets within Southeast Asia. Furthermore, the investment is expected to not only accelerate Ajaib’s existing digital financial services – such as web and mobile banking – but it may also provide resources for cross border partnerships that can benefit both parties involved.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we proudly announce that Horizons Ventures, the venture capital arm of the Li Ka-shing Foundation, alongside Alpha JWC, a regionally focused growth fund backed by key regional investors, will lead Ajaib’s first round of institutional funding.
This exciting development for Ajaib reinforces the strong trust and support that investors have in our team, capabilities and vision. We thank all those who have trusted us and look forward to working with Horizons Ventures and Alpha JWC to move Ajaib into this new era of fintech disruption in Southeast Asia.