Indonesia’s Stockbit gets approval to acquire Mahakarya

Indonesian-based stock trading platform and community Stockbit gets a nod from the Financial Services Authority (OJK) to acquire local securities company Mahakarya Artha Sekuritas.

Details of the deal value, however, were not disclosed.

This acquisition will now enable Mahakarya’s users to open stock accounts and trade in the Indonesian Stock Exchange via the Stockbit app, according to the announcement.

Mahakarya Artha Sekuritas has been the company’s broking partner since September. After the acquisition, this will now be rebranded to Stockbit Sekuritas.

Prior to Stockbit’s tie-up with Mahakarya, they teamed up with traditional security firms, such as Sinarmas Sekuritas to provide its users with stock trading. However, the partnership ended in August.

Stockbit, which was founded in 2013, is a social network for stock investors before they gradually changed into an app that integrates stock trading, information aggregation, and social networking.

Bibit, a mutual fund investment app acquired by Stockbit in 2019, raised a $65 million growth round in May this year. Sequoia Capital India led the round.

The Stockbit app also raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding led by East Ventures in 2019.

Its Bibit and competitors aim to simplify capital investment for first-time investors while requiring a lower fee and a smaller minimum initial investment sum than traditional brokerages.

In 2020, retail investors in Indonesia surged 56% year-over-year 2020, according to OJK. Those who invested in mutual funds saw growth of 78% year-over-year to 3.2 million.

The low financial literacy in the country’s capital market at 4.9 percent presents opportunities for investment services, which are buoyed by the COVID-19 pandemic when people took advantage of a market pullback and turned to online environments.

Only a total of 2.69 million retail equity investors out of its 270 million population was recorded.

Last month, Indonesia produced a unicorn in the stock and mutual fund investment sector.