Indonesia-listed BTPN Syariah-backed venture capital firm BTPN Syariah Ventura, which marked its debut with an investment in social commerce player Dagangan, is looking to back one more startup this year.
Set up with a capital injection of 300 billion rupiah ($20 million), the VC unit plans to invest in startups at the Series A to pre-Series B stages with a ticket size below 75 billion rupiah ($5 million).
BTPN Syariah is looking at the venture capital operation to add synergy to its lending operations as well as its customers, largely micro and small business units.
BTPN Syariah director Fachmi Achmad said that the lender offers financing to customers through its agent network called Mitra Tepat. The 30,000 agents (in 2022) help BTPN Syariah in the collection and other financial services such as payment point online bank.
“Our investment through BTPN Syariah Ventura is to empower the Mitra Tepat agents who need tools to help them in data digitalisation, lending facilities, and market access for their goods,” Achmad told DealStreetAsia on Thursday.
The BTPN unit, which secured the venture capital licence from the Indonesia Financial Service Authority (OJK) in October 2021, started operations in May 2022.
As the first sharia-based venture capital firm, BTPN Syariah Ventura is seeking to fill the gap in the sharia digital ecosystem.
BTPN Syariah Ventura president director Ade Fauzan had said the bank considered the possibility of engaging with external investors for the fund but with careful consideration of the potential of generating return on investment.
With 166 trillion rupiah in AUM, entities like the Indonesia hajj fund (BPKH), one of the largest sharia institutional investors, could become external investors for sharia funds, according to Fauzan. However, BPKH is still calibrating the potential risk of investing in startups.