C88 Financial Technologies acquires IDX Optus

C88 Financial Technologies acquires Indonesian data analytics leaders id/x partners and Optus Solution (IDX Optus).

C88 Financial Technologies, parent company of Indonesia’s CekAja.com and the Philippines’ eCompareMo.com, today announces the strategic acquisition of IDX Optus, Indonesia’s leading information management, credit decision analytics and data science company.

C88 co-founder and Chief Executive J. P. Ellis says the acquisition was driven by the increasing importance of data and analytics in the region’s financial services industry. He added that with this strategic acquisition, C88 is now the region’s leading change-partner across a full-service spectrum of scoring, decisioning, acquisition, and customer experience solutions for the region’s financial institutions.

“C88 has traditionally been a licensed operator of leading financial marketplaces, such as CekAja.com in Indonesia and eCompareMo.com in the Philippines. A little more than a year-ago, we welcomed Experian as a partner and have started to excel in credit decision analytics and scoring. With IDX Optus, we have now cemented our position as a leader in this space,” said Ellis.

Founded in 2013, C88 Financial Technologies has raised over US$45mio in investment and its shareholders include global financial-sector investors such as San Francisco-based Experian Ventures, Zurich-based responsAbility Investments, and Cologne-based DEG; as well as venture capital investors such as Monks Hill Ventures, InterVest Kejora, Telstra Ventures, Kickstart Ventures and Korea Investment Partners.

Founded in 2006 and 2009 respectively, id/x partners and Optus Solution together have received multiple local and regional awards and serve leading local and multi-national financial services, telecommunications and other companies in Indonesia to harness the value of data and to advance the adoption of advanced analytics.

“The region’s financial services industry is unlike many other technology verticals,” continues Ellis. “It is multi-polar instead of zero-sum, and inequities such as low levels of access and inclusion persist not because of a lack of demand or lack of capital adequacy on incumbents’ balance sheets, but rather because the industry has historically lacked data as well as tools to create insights and intelligence from data. We believe the industry is changing very quickly as more institutions as well as regulators embrace increasingly sophisticated analytical approaches to make better decisions and manage risk. We call this P2B, or peer-to-bank, and we are very bullish on it. C88 and IDX Optus are now market leaders to help affect that change.”

Anton Hariyanto, co-founder and Chief Executive of IDX Optus welcomed the strategic acquisition by C88 as part of a growth and regional expansion strategy.

“We have for many years been a leading data analytics provider for Indonesia’s financial services, telecommunications and retail industries. We are committed to continue to partner with our clients and to help them achieve more from synergies this strategic acquisition creates. Furthermore, we will expand and grow to benefit and help millions of customers in the region access financial services. Financial transparency and literacy are the backbone of an equitable and fair economy, and we are very excited to be a part of this journey.” says Anton.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. All IDX Optus executives and management will continue with the company. IDX Optus teams and operations will co-locate with C88’s team and operations, as well establish a Philippine presence, by early 2020.

About C88 Financial Technologies

C88 Financial Technologies is a Singapore-headquartered financial technology company that employs over 600 people across extensive operations in Indonesia and the Philippines.

C88 has four principal products and focuses: (i) operating financial marketplace brands to reach customers in high growth emerging markets in ASEAN; (ii) promoting digital onboarding SaaS solutions to financial institution partners to digitize and automate the decisioning and onboarding experiences of millions of customers; (iii) building advanced alternative and traditional data credit scoring and credit analytics models; and (iv) promoting “peer to bank” or “lending-as-a-service” solutions for financial institution partners.

C88 has raised over US$45 million in equity capital from a diverse and reputable group of financial industry as well as venture capital investors.

C88 and its various subsidiaries and affiliates are licensed and regulated. In Indonesia, they are also co-founders and Board Members of the Indonesian FinTech Association, a self-regulatory organization officially recognized by Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority (Otoritas Jasa Keuangan, or “OJK”) as a market oversight organization for the growing digital financial services industry.

For more information, please visit https://c88fin.com, https://cekaja.com, and https://ecomparemo.com.

About id/x partners and Optus Solution

IDX Optus group consists of two companies, PT IDX Consulting (id/x partners) and PT Optus Solution, with a team of over 90 people in various domains: industry subject-matter experts, data scientists, data engineers, software developers, and technical consultants – providing synergy in data and analytics solutions to clients in the financial services, telecommunications, retail and other industries.

IDX Optus’ main services and solutions are in analytics and information management, including cognitive and predictive analytics (risk and marketing models), artificial intelligence, machine learning, revenue optimization, data visualization, data management (big data, structured/non-structured data, data lake and data warehouse, data integration, data governance), decision support and credit risk management.

IDX Optus also provides productized software solutions, including iDecision Credit Risk, iDecision Liquidity Risk, iDecision CRM, and iDecision Digital Lending, as well as leading solutions from global technology companies Experian, IBM, Oracle, Collinson, and others.

IDX Optus currently serves top-tier clients in Indonesia’s banking, multi-finance, fintech, credit bureau, insurance, telecommunications, governmental and retail industries.

For more information, please visit http://www.idxpartners.com and http://www.optus-asia.com.