May 8, 2019 3 min read

Indonesia-based fintech aggregator Alami has secured an undisclosed amount of funding in a pre-seed round led by Tryb Group. Alami, a marketplace for Islamic financing, is the first sharia-compliant peer-to-peer platform to raise funds in the region. The company is working with multiple partners, including sharia banks to facilitate SME invoice financing.

The company's P2P platform recently obtained a P2P registration from the country’s Financial Services Authority (OJK) and is set to soon expand its business into the sharia-compliant P2P financing space.

How did we do it?

While announcing the fund raise, Dima Djani, founder and CEO of ALAMI, said, “Tryb’s Southeast Asian fintech expertise provides strong validation of our business model and key support for our growth plans.”

The Indonesian SME segment is approximately 97 per cent of the total workforce, however the SME sector has consistently experienced limited access to capital. ALAMI is aiming to provide access to capital governed by sharia principles along with the necessary education to increase financial literacy for all market participants.

“With rising technology adoption of SMEs and individuals, ALAMI is focused on providing customer-focused and responsible products to ensure ALAMI will become the go-to platform for all your Islamic financial needs soon,” Djani added.

Commenting on the development, Herston Powers, Principal at tryb said, “The time is ripe for sharia finance to grow rapidly in Indonesia driven by significant unmet demand from the population.

“The sharia fintech market is a huge and untapped market in Indonesia with significant growth prospects. Fintech adoption and rising demand from across customer segments will increase the sharia finance share of total assets in Indonesia.”

Tapping on 90% Muslim Population

Powers added that Indonesia currently has the largest Muslim population in the world. According to the report, nearly 90 per cent of its 260 million populations are Muslim. However, Indonesia’s sharia finance sector has historically lagged other markets with large Muslim populations.

While there is a strong and vocal government support for sharia finance and fintech, it has had a positive impact on this sector, since not many players are operating in sharia finance in Indonesia.

Powers continued saying, “As long as Sharia financial products are seen as credible and competitive there is no reason why Indonesia’s sharia banking assets should not match or exceed those in Malaysia, which stand at over 25% of total banking assets, in the coming years.”

tryb continues to focus on backing strong founders and teams that are addressing the large and growing fintech market in Southeast Asia. Describing ALAMI’s edge in Indonesia’s sharia finance and fintech space, Powers concluded, “Building a brand tied together by values is extremely powerful, doubly so for a brand that asks its customers to trust it with their financial well-being.”