Expansion of the responsAbility fintech portfolio in Asia

Zurich, 30 August 2018 — A responsAbility-managed private equity vehicle focusing on financial inclusion has acquired a minority stake in C88 Financial Technologies Pte. Ltd. C88 is a market leading fintech company providing financial marketplaces for lending and insurance products in Indonesia and the Philippines. Through a partnership with Experian, C88 plans to increase financial inclusion in the markets by improving the matching of millions of underserved customers with appropriate financial products.

Through its online portals CekAja.com in Indonesia and eCompareMo.com in the Philippines, C88’s makes a range of alternative financial products available to customers, with comparison between alternative products and providers contributing to pricing transparency. Matching the customer’s profile with appropriate products, the Company also facilitates the purchase process and conducts know-your-customer research on behalf of its partnering banks and insurance companies. 

Advanced marketing techniques focused on online search allows C88 to serve large numbers of customers. For instance, C88’s insurance offerings provide small ticket size insurance to hundreds of thousands of customers.

In Indonesia and the Philippines, banks in the retail segment lend almost exclusively to high income and upper middle class customers with an established credit track record, leaving a large proportion of bankable customers underserved or excluded. 

The company plans to work with banks and insurance companies to develop and distribute new financial products suitable for broad segments of the population. There is substantial room to make better decisions about credit and pricing of credit to improve matching of customers with the right products, as well as for banks and other players to introduce new products to serve those who are currently excluded or underserved. 

To scale business further and to deepen the relationship with new and existing customers, C88 has entered a partnership with Experian, a global leader in consumer and business credit reporting and marketing services. The collaboration will help C88 further increase its product offering. This will allow millions of customers to get their first loans and start building a credit history, which will in turn help them obtain further financing on better terms. 

Speaking on behalf of responsAbility, Henning Haugerudbraten, Principal/Private Equity, said: “C88 already helps match customers with appropriate products and facilitates pricing transparency in the Indonesian and Philippine markets. The next objective is to use the platform to provide access to finance to millions of unbanked customers, creating an extensive positive impact for financial inclusion. This makes C88 an ideal addition to our growing portfolio of impact-oriented financial institutions in emerging markets.”

About C88 (c88fin.com) C88 is the largest digital credit risk scoring, finance, insurance and investment platform in Indonesia and the Philippines. The company has served over 50 million customers across these two markets since 2013. C88 invented and pioneered the digital sales channel for Indonesian and Philippine financial and insurance institutions; delivering high quality, low cost, high volume distribution solutions that now account for more than 20% of many of their partners’ total sales. The company also pioneered the ‘underwriting marketplace’ concept, where credit risk scoring and decision engines are embedded directly into the financial e-commerce experience, such that a customer can receive a principal in-application approval with a risk-adjusted price.

About responsAbility Investments AG (responsAbility.com) responsAbility Investments AG is a leading asset manager in the field of development investments that offers professionally managed investment solutions to private, institutional and public investors. The company supplies debt and equity financing to firms in emerging economies. responsAbility currently has USD 3 billion of assets under management invested in over 540 companies in 90 countries. Founded in 2003, the company is headquartered in Zurich and has local offices in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Lima, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Nairobi, Oslo and Paris. Its shareholders include a number of reputable institutions in the Swiss financial market and its own employees. responsAbility is regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA.

Contacts

C88 Financial Technologies Pte Ltd Agatha Simanjuntak, Media Relations +62 812 387 4774 agatha@cekaja.com