In January 2022, KoinWorks announced the largest cheque in its history: US$108 million in a Series C round, led by MDI Ventures, the venture arm of Telkom Indonesia. The pitch was a bigger one than lending. It wanted to become a neobank for small and medium businesses.
It had begun six years earlier, in 2016, when Benedicto Haryono and Willy Arifin founded the company. Haryono became CEO. Arifin took the role of executive chairman.
Each one validated a different part of the business, from marketplace lending to supply-chain finance and eventually banking-style services.
That trail is long. In 2018 the company raised a Series A reported at Rp230 billion, led by Mandiri Capital Indonesia, with Gunung Sewu and Convergence Ventures joining. Quona Capital followed with an A+ extension. In 2019 came a Series B, reported at Rp170 billion, and a B2 of S$18.5 million from Saison Capital, the venture arm of Credit Saison. ..
What the sequence shows is a company that kept adding new categories of investor: a state-bank venture arm, a Japanese consumer-credit group, a telecom giant. Each one validated a different part of the business, from marketplace lending to supply-chain finance and eventually banking-style services.
For a founder, the takeaway is in the structure of the cap table. Raising from banks and telcos buys distribution and credibility, and it also ties your name to institutions whose own risks can become yours. Know who your investors are, because the public will.