Indonesian fintech startup Komunal clinches $2.1m Series A funding

The company offers Neo-rural bank services locally.

Indonesian fintech startup Komunal has raised $2.1m in a Series A funding round led by East Ventures with participation from Skystar Capital.

Both investors also backed Komunal in its seed funding round.

Komunal plans to use the fresh capital to enhance its latest product DepositoBPR. Recently, DepositoBPR has been regulated under an official license from Financial Services Authority (OJK), making Komunal the first authorized funding agent in Indonesia. Funding Agent cluster under OJK Digital Financial Innovation aims to provide a platform to connect depositors or savers to financial institutions nationwide, especially BPR (Bank Perkreditan Rakyat or rural banks) which offer a very attractive funding product.

DepositoBPR enables societies nationwide to access the highest possible government guaranteed deposit rates from rural banks in any region without having to visit the bank. On the other hand, BPR can source deposits nationwide without incurring the hefty cost of opening additional branches and marketing effort to attract more deposits. In other words, BPR can source deposits regardless of the geographical boundaries and convert their higher fixed operating cost to lower variable fees to Komunal by using DepositoBPR platform

Currently, Komunal is working to launch Indonesia’s first e- bilyet BPR deposit by the end of 2021.

“The e-bilyet feature is rather revolutionary in the sense that, up to now, almost all BPR deposits are using physical bilyet/deposit certificate, which means BPR in Bali, for instance, will need to send the physical bilyet to its depositor in Jakarta and vice versa, incurring relatively high logistics cost in the process. The e-bilyet, which is created digitally, will effectively eliminate this friction and help our vision to make the product accessible nationwide,” Komunal co-founder Kendrick Winoto said.

Komunal has engaged with 60 BPRs across Java and Bali, and launched the beta version of DepositoBPR services in August 2021. The company focuses on doubling the BPR market share by offering a higher rate, as well as more seamless transactions to new and existing clients.