According to the Central Statistics Agency, MSMEs’ contribution to Indonesia’s GDP has reached 60% and absorbs 97.22% of the national workforce.[1] However, as of 2019, over 77% of Indonesians are reportedly “unbanked” or “underbanked”[2], while less than 15% of all MSME sectors[3] do not yet have access to financing. With this business license, OVO and Taralite will continue to support the government’s efforts to implement Indonesia’s digital vision and mission, particularly bringing people, especially in the MSMEs sector, closer to digital financial services. Through these financial service innovations, users and MSMEs players will have an expanded access to untapped services, including consumer and business lending. Such services are deemed to be beneficial, especially as users and MSMEs are preparing for the New Normal economy.

OVO’s CEO Jason Thompson commented, “OVO’s long-term goal has always been to address the gaps in the financial ecosystem. This announcement we have today further underlines OVO’s commitment to serve more users and MSMEs beyond our ecosystem with access to services and competitive secure lending to help them face the economic uncertainties ahead. We hope that this will boost financial inclusion rates and help the financial landscape in Indonesia become less fragmented.”

"We want to congratulate all AFPI members who obtain licenses from the Financial Services Authority (OJK). We hope that with this, we can together strengthen the industry especially amidst COVID-19 and show our commitment to actively disburse loans to the public, especially in the MSMEs sector," said Adrian Gunadi, Chairman of Indonesian Joint Funding Fintech Association (AFPI). Adrian hopes that the announcement today will inspire other members that are currently in process. "As a P2P FinTech lending provider, we need to comply with the regulations from OJK and its associations to maintain the credibility of the industry."

Taralite's President Director, Sharly Rungkat said, “We are grateful for the opportunity and trust given by OJK in providing Taralite with an official lending business license. We greatly appreciate the support and mandate from OJK to provide lending services, particularly in the MSMEs sector in order to help improve financial inclusion in Indonesia. Amidst difficult times, we strive to continuously innovate and synergize to provide the best service for Indonesians' needs. We believe with the support of OVO as one of the largest digital ecosystems in Indonesia, we are better able to reach underserved markets, including those who are unbanked and underbanked.”

Along with OVO, towards the beginning of 2020, Taralite has introduced OVO DanaTara as a cash flow management and additional business capital solution for Indonesian MSMEs. Also, Taralite provides online MSMEs access to financing of up to IDR 500 million (USD 35k) with the approval process around 1-3 working days and tenor up to 12 months. To date, Taralite services are available for MSMEs who are members of prominent e-commerce platforms in Indonesia such as Tokopedia, Lazada, Shopee, and Bukalapak. This solution supports the needs of MSMEs to obtain working capital financing in an easier and simpler way. Taralite’s lending disbursed amount grew nearly 50% from the start of 2020 and so far 500,000 MSMEs are part of the OVO ecosystem.

Moreover, in 2019, Taralite and OVO launched OVO PayLater as part of OVO’s commitment to support the government in accelerating Indonesia’s financial inclusion. With this breakthrough, Taralite and OVO directly caters to 96% of Indonesians without access to consumer credit in conducting retail transactions and expands credit access to millions of Indonesians as well as supports the growing trend of retail sales growth in Indonesia.[4]

1 Economic Census CSA, 2016
2 “ Fulfilling its promise: The future of Southeast Asia’s digital financial services”, Bain & Company, Google, Temasek, 2019
3 Bain, Digital Financial Services in Indonesia, March 2019
4 Bank of Indonesia, Retail Sales Survey