One of the most prominent players in this space is Amartha, a Jakarta-based lending platform that connects borrowers in remote communities with financial institutions. Founded in 2010, it now counts about 3 million active borrowers – 99 per cent of them women operating micro, small or medium enterprises (MSMEs), according to company data.
These enterprises are the backbone of Southeast Asia’s largest economy, accounting for more than 60 per cent of gross domestic product and employing nearly 117 million people – or 97 per cent of the workforce – based on government estimates. Yet most MSMEs operate informally, lacking both credit histories and access to capital.
“What I am proud of is that we are not only serving borrowers in the city, but we are serving those in the remote islands across Indonesia,” said chief executive Andi Taufan Garuda Putra at the Asia Grassroots Forum in Bali, hosted by Amartha last month.
“Our growth is mostly contributed from outside Java and the big cities so our borrowers, we can say they are from underserved [communities],” he added.
Amartha provides working capital loans ranging from US$400 to US$1,330, connecting rural borrowers to local lenders. Since its launch, it has disbursed more than 35 trillion rupiah (US$2.2 billion), mainly to women entrepreneurs in low-income or geographically isolated areas.
