Tag: JULO

Jakarta, Indonesia – Ankur Mehrotra, formerly a managing director of Grab Financial Group, has joined the Indonesian digital lending firm Julo as its president, Bloomberg reports.

In his new role, Mehrotra will be responsible for Julo’s overall strategy and corporate finance, including international expansion, fundraising and mergers and acquisitions.

During his stint at Grab Financial, he founded Grab’s lending business and led it to become one of the largest digital lenders in SEA. In addition, he was also the CEO of Grab’s fintech lending Joint Venture (GFSA) that provided financing to consumers, drivers and SMEs.

Lastly, Mehrotra also founded Grab’s Insurtech business, incubated it and continued as a board member of Grab’s Insure-tech JV with Zhonghan International.

He also served as a managing director of corporate finance at Grab, as well as a founder and CEO of F&B discovery platform Abratable. He has also experience working with Standard Chartered and the International Monetary Fund.

Julo is backed by Japanese credit card company Credit Saison, who was the prime investor in Julo’s US$80m funding. The lending firm allows users in Indonesia to withdraw and send cash, make online purchases and pay bills. 

Jakarta, Indonesia – JULO, a local fintech platform, has recently raised US$80m to facilitate access to its lending services for its growing Indonesian user base. The funding is composed of a combination of US$30m equity and US$50m credit facility.

The funding was facilitated by Credit Saison, a Japanese financial services company affiliated to Mizuho Financial Group.

The equity of US$30m will be used by JULO to develop data analysis systems, product development, marketing, and customer acquisition plans by adding human resources (HR) in the development team, data scientists and business intelligence personnel. Meanwhile, the US$50m credit facility will be allocated to facilitate loan funds on the JULO platform.

Adrianus Hitijahubessy, CEO and co-founder at JULO, said, “Until now, JULO Digital Credit has a commitment to empower the people of Indonesia, where 72% of credit applications are used for purposes of improving the quality of life such as business capital, home renovations and education. In collaboration with Credit Saison, we have the opportunity to develop JULO’s commitment further by carrying out a further revolution in the Indonesian fintech lending industry and reaching out to people who are underserved by financial services in every province of Indonesia.”

As an investor, Credit Saison will play an active role – especially in the hyper-growth phase of JULO – by making joint observations for any potential business development in the future. The following investment strategy was developed by Credit Saison through Saison Capital, a venture capital firm focused on startups with opportunities to develop financial capabilities.

Meanwhile, Kosuke Mori, senior managing executive officer and head of global business at Credit Saison, commented, “To improve financial well-being, credit innovation needs to be accompanied by an in-depth understanding of consumer behaviour and needs. As a result, JULO continues to grow in the midst of the COVID pandemic situation with credit disbursement of more than US$300m to date. We look forward to working with JULO to further accelerate access to financial products and to bring about significant changes for economic development in Southeast Asia.”