GandengTangan, an evolving crowdlending platform for micro-entrepreneurs secured an undisclosed amount of investment from Ibu Mariko Asmara, supported by ANGIN (Angel Investment Network Indonesia).
GandengTangan organizes peer-to-peer lending to boost micro and small enterprises in Indonesia. GandengTangan’ target is to be the main source of collaboration between entrepreneurs and aspiring investors who care about the economy improvement in Indonesia. Founded in March 2015, up until today GandengTangan has been collecting support from 700+ lenders, funding 20 enterprises, and creating social impact for more than 3500 people. With these experiences, GandengTangan strives to continue expanding its positive impacts to inequality reduction, poverty alleviation, jobs creation, and easing financial access of households and SMEs which leads to the increase of Indonesia’s financial inclusion level.
GandengTangan was established to overcome the problem of small and micro enterprises who often face the problem of accumulating debts to middlemen. On the other side, these entrepreneurs face difficulties in borrowing from the formal finance institutions due to the complicated requirements. GandengTangan encourages enthusiastic investors to give soft loans to the entrepreneurs. GandengTangan also cooperates with Baitul Maal wat Tamwil (BMT) to provide wider exposure to their clients. In the future, GandengTangan will continue to open opportunities for cooperation with other financial institutions who are keen to jointly develop micro and small enterprises in Indonesia.
After two years, thrilled by the potential and needs to present pro-social investor candidates with more trusted information, GandengTangan recently launched GT-Trust program. GT-Trust will be the agents who seek, nurture, and educate small and micro entrepreneurs in order to get better loan and optimize their capital. “By introducing the role of GT-Trust, we believe that this platform not only provide a friendly loan access, but also provide them with local trustees who will assist the micro and small businesses with regards to growth strategies and improvement of personal livelihood..” said Jezzie Setiawan, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of GandengTangan.org.
GandengTangan was founded and is managed by Jezzie Setiawan and Darul Syahdanul, both of whom come from diverse professional background. Jezzie Setiawan used to work as an analyst in several financial industry, from banking to capital market, where she certified a license as an Investment Manager Representative (WMI-Wakil Manajer Investasi), an official license from OJK (Financial Services Authority). She is graduated her Bachelor’s Degree in School of Business and Management, ITB in 2009, and Master’s Degree in Financial Analyst and Fund Management in University of Exeter, UK.
Darul has more than 6 years of experience in managing local community, from working for education in Rote Island-NTT, assisting 1000+ volunteers for social movement in East Indonesia, to handling Government’s initiatives for rural electrification. Currently, he is an Awardee of Superior Scholarship for Social Activist and Artist 2015 from the Ministry of Education for his Master’s Degree in Urban Development Studies in University of Indonesia. “We are very pleased with the occurrence of this collaboration. As Ibu Mariko become part of GandengTangan family, we expect to improve GandengTangan’s service quality; as well as the impact that will be achieved by the company in the future.” said Darul, Chief Community Officer of GandengTangan.org.
About Ibu Mariko
Ibu Mariko Asmara Yoshihara is the Chairman of JAC Recruitment Indonesia and one of the most active angel impact investor in Indonesia. Ibu Mariko is also the co-founder of Sato Kogyo Indonesia and Ango Ventures. She has invested in multiple businesses aiming to deliver improvement in livelihood through sustainable agriculture, empowerment and capacity building.
“As an Angel Investor and Entrepreneur in Indonesia, I see huge barriers for startups or new players to borrow money for their further expansion in Indonesia from formal finance institution. However, I see so much impact and contribution that they can do to the Nation and society. I believe that GandengTangan can increase the performance of SMEs in the future. Along with government programs, we should be able to increase the percentage of entrepreneurs in Indonesia from 1% to 5%” said Ibu Mariko Asmara, the investor.
About ANGIN
ANGIN (Angel Investment Network Indonesia) is the first and largest angel investor network in Indonesia. It has gathered 44 high-net-worth individuals who pool resources together to engage in early stage investment and mentoring. ANGIN team supports entrepreneurs on their fundraising journey by equipping them with the right assets, connecting them with like-minded investors, to ensure entrepreneurs get the right resources at the right terms in order to expand their operations and impact. ANGING has closed 22 deals, helped more than 30 entrepreneurs on top to raise funding from vetted VC, PE, other angel groups.
