Online investment platform Makmur secures seven-figure seed funding led by BEENEXT. A number of VCs and angel investors participated in this round, including Kinesys Group, Trihill Capital, Yiping Goh (Partner at Quest Ventures), Edward Tirtanata via Kenangan Kapital, Vidit Agrawal (CEO of GajiGesa), and Andrew Lee.
The money will be used to drive business growth by developing product features and portfolios. Makmur will also increase the number and develop the quality of its human resources.
“Currently, Indonesia’s capital market investors are experiencing significant growth, but only represent 2% of the total population in Indonesia. We expect this funding to support our efforts to close the financial inclusion gap and encourage literacy in Indonesia,” Sander said in his official statement.
Edward Tirtanata through his angel investment fund, Kenangan Kapital said that Indonesia is currently experiencing an unprecedented surge in investment from the retail market. Using this growth, Makmur focuses on financial advisory and goal-based investing to help assist novice investors. He considered this to provide different values compared to wealthtech startups in Indonesia.
“Non-professional investors like me need financial advisors, and Makmur democratizes financial advisor services,” Edward told DailySocial.id in separate occation.
In general note, Makmur allows investors to invest with a minimum value of IDR 10,000. Makmur offers a number of features to strengthen the added value of its products. First, technology-based human advisors and Makmur Recipe to make it easier for novice investors to compare the right mutual funds. Users can also place mutual funds in different pockets according to their needs or investment goals (goal based investing).
Currently, Makmur provides eight investment managers, BNI Asset Management, Bahana TCW Investment Management, Trimegah Asset Management, Avrist Asset Management, Capital Asset Management, RHB Asset Management, FWD Asset Management, and Syailendra Asset Management.
Strengthen its position
In fact, Makmur is backed by a series of team work experiences at well-known technology and financial companies in Silicon Valley and Wall Street. Sander previously had an internship as a Facebook Software Engineer who was responsible for the algorithm for sorting posts on the News Feed and a Software Engineer at Motorola Solutions.
He has also held various positions in the financial industry, from KCG Holdings to Head of Quantitative Trading at Virtu Financial, one of the largest stock trading companies on Wall Street.
As DailySocial.id reached, Sander based his thought on a number of strategies in blending Makmur’s superior features, therefore, users can experience investing like having a personal wealth manager
For example, Makmur Recipe’s superior features were developed in several options, such as Makmur Recipe for emergency funds, retirement funds, and passive income. In addition, there is also a tech-enabled human advisor feature to design strategies according to the user’s investment goals. The recommended investment strategy will also follow the user’s risk profile.
Sander said this feature was designed by experts in their fields with the support of research and data-based investment technology. He considered that human advisors better understand the investment needs of users than robo advisors that have been circulating on similar platforms.
“We see that Indonesia has a quite low investment literacy. Most people invest because they join in or are attracted to sweet returns. In fact, a good investment must be based on data and research, not just feeling or simply following. Therefore, we made a quantitative investment strategy which draws on decades of data and research results used by Wall Street, not just academic theory,” Sander said.
Business development
This year, Sander revealed that his team will increase the mutual funds options by adding investment manager partners with good reputation and track record. His team will also collaborate with several mutual fund sales outlet partners
“We strictly select investment manager partners. In terms of mutual fund products, we consider some factors, such as performance, top holding, managed funds, and management fees for similar mutual funds,” he said.
In terms of products, Makmur will add new features to make it easier for users to invest, such as payment methods. According to Sander, the GoPay and Direct Debit payment methods are in the process of being integrated and are targeted for release in the next two months.
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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian