Indonesian proptech startup Tanaku secures more than $5m in fresh capital

Tanaku, an Indonesia-based proptech startup, raised $5.5 million pre-seed funding led by East Ventures. The round included equity and debt capital from an International Bank.

The fresh capital will accelerate Tanaku’s mission to make home ownership accessible and radically transform the home buying experience, with the current focus on building the product, expanding the team, acquiring homes, and executing the go-to -market strategy.

Tanaku is founded by Jonathan Ma (Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer), Andries De Vos (Co-founder & Head of Product), Bhanu Prakash (Co-founder & Head of Marketing) & Alwin Hajaning (Co-founder & Head of Commercial) who are industry veterans in property, finance, legal, product and growth. They were united by the common mission of democratising home ownership by providing more buyer-friendly financing solutions.

“We are ecstatic that East Ventures invested in our vision to bridge the homeownership gap & drive financial inclusivity in Indonesia. We are happy to partner with EV due to strong cultural ties to Indonesia, deep rooted knowledge of the local tech landscape, while having the scale to support our ambitions,” said Ma.

Since 2000, homeownership has been in decline in Indonesia by 2% each year, and 70 million millennials are the most impacted segment with 70% unable to afford their own home.

The problem stems from how the home needs to be purchased. Many millennials do not have large funds saved for the initial down payment and banks reject the majority when applying for a mortgage. Property developers often offer instalment plans called ‘cicilan’ but they come with expensive hidden fees, high interest rates and predatory terms. This leaves millennials frustrated and resorting to long-term rentals causing a steady decline in home ownership.

Headquartered in Jakarta, Tanaku aims to build a ‘pre-mortgage solution’ for owning a home. While there are many startups in the Indonesian proptech marketplace space, Tanaku is going to build a unique end-to-end technology platform to facilitate the purchase and transaction of homes completely online.

“Our mission is to reverse the decline of home ownership in Indonesia and make the dream of owning a home accessible. In the long-run we want to fuel Indonesia’s transition toward green housing,” said said Ma.