Online investment platform Ajaib becomes Indonesia’s fastest unicorn

Indonesia-based online investment platform Ajaib becomes the fastest unicorn in the country. The company has been said to have achieved this milestone in just 2.5 years since its launch.

The stock and mutual fund investment platform has raised $153 million in a Series B funding round led by DST Global and existing investors Ribbit Capital, Alpha JWC Ventures, Insignia Ventures, Horizon Ventures, and SoftBank Ventures Asia.

Ribbit Capital and DST Global are also investors in a prominent US-based stock trading app, Robinhood.

Ajaib claims that it has gathered more than 1 million stock investors in the country. Indonesia has about 2.7 million stock investors in all.

Indonesia’s financial literacy in the capital market is relatively low at about 4.9 percent, according to a survey conducted in 2020 by the Financial Services Authority. However, the retail savings and investment market in the country is consistently growing in recent years. According to a Researchandmarket’s report, the value of the market grew three times from $108 billion in 2008 to $326 billion in 2018.

Anderson Sumrali, Co-founder and CEO of Ajaib said in a statement, “Our mission is to welcome a new generation of investors to modern financial services.” He added, “Indonesia still has only 1% stock investor penetration. We’re just beginning to realize our mission.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an investment euphoria among young people in the country. Sumrali said, “The retail investor growth this year is just the beginning to build a generation of investment, a generation that understands the importance and benefits of investing.”

The startup plans to use the fresh funding to launch new products to attract more first-time investors and hire product and engineering talent. Ajaib also plans to implement financial education initiatives for new investors.

Ajaib, earlier this year had raised $125 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Horizons Ventures. The company later added $65 million more on this round led by Ribbit Capital.

About Ajaib

Founded in 2019 by Yada Piyajomkwan and Anderson Sumrali, Ajaib offers an investment platform that allows Indonesians to buy and sell stocks, mutual funds, and ETFs.

The startup leverages the country’s high smartphone penetration rate by functioning as a mobile-first stock trading app. The Ajaib app requires no minimum amount to open a brokerage account, however, it does not offer commission-free trading. It claims to be the first online stockbroker in the country to have removed the minimum capital requirements for its users.