Dear Subscriber,
Indonesia’s tech and fintech ecosystem continues to accelerate. Waterhub secured seed funding to scale its clean water innovation, while Flip and Bank Aladin Syariah launched an LPS-guaranteed sharia savings account. SeaBank posted annual profit increase, but challenges persist as scam losses surged in 2025. At the same time, Danantara starts executing strategic investments, and Komdigi’s sends out ultimatum to Roblox.
Looking ahead, QRIS remains the backbone of Indonesia’s payment system, now reaching 57M users in 2025. Cross-border corridors with Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore contributed significantly to QRIS’s growth, while expansion to Japan is already live, with China, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea on the horizon. These developments reinforce QRIS as a model for regional payment integration, boosting both inbound tourism and outbound digital commerce.
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Danantara investment surge 💸
Indonesia’s sovereign-linked Danantara realized Rp 179.05T (~USD 11B) in investments in H1 2025, channeling funds into infrastructure, sustainability, and the digital economy. The capital deployment underscores the state’s growing role as both investor and market shaper in key strategic sectors. Read more
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Waterhub raises seed funding 💧
Indonesian water-tech startup Waterhub has secured seed investment from Archipelago VC and The Radical Fund. The fresh capital underscores growing investor appetite in climate-tech solutions, with Waterhub positioned to scale innovations that tackle Indonesia’s chronic water access and sustainability challenges—an area with strong regulatory backing and rising demand from both urban and rural markets. Read more -
Flip x Bank Aladin launch sharia savings 🏦
Payment platform Flip and Bank Aladin Syariah have rolled out Super Flip Tabungan Syariah, a sharia-compliant savings account guaranteed by LPS (Indonesia Deposit Insurance Corporation). Beyond expanding Flip’s embedded finance play, the partnership highlights how neobanks are leveraging collaboration to build trust and extend financial inclusion in Indonesia’s large Muslim population—one of the world’s fastest-growing Islamic finance markets. Read more -
SeaBank profit up 18% 📈
Sea Group’s SeaBank Indonesia posted IDR 214B (~USD 13M) profit in H1 2025, an 18% increase YoY. The results reflect successful monetization of its ecosystem (Shopee, Garena) while sustaining operational efficiency, proving that digital banks in Indonesia are not just scaling user numbers but also delivering profitability in an increasingly competitive neobank landscape. Read more -
Rising scam losses ⚠️
Public losses from scams in Indonesia reached Rp 4.6T (~USD 280M) in 2025, raising concerns about consumer protection in the digital era. This highlights a dual challenge: scaling financial access while safeguarding trust. Expect tighter oversight and collaboration between fintech players and regulators in fraud prevention. Read more -
Komdigi vs Roblox regulation 🎮
Indonesia’s Kominfo Digital (Komdigi) has given Roblox two compliance requirements to avoid a ban, signaling rising scrutiny on global platforms. The case illustrates Indonesia’s tightening stance on content regulation, user safety, and data governance—issues with far-reaching implications for international platforms seeking to operate in the country. Read more
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Nusatrip IPO on Nasdaq ✈️
Travel platform Nusatrip successfully listed on Nasdaq, making it one of the few Indonesian startups to go public on an international exchange. The IPO signals strong confidence in post-pandemic travel-tech growth and opens the door for more Southeast Asian startups to pursue U.S. listings as a pathway to global visibility and capital access. Read more -
DigiAsia pivots to “Simple App” 📲
NASDAQ-listed fintech DigiAsia Bios (FAAS) is moving away from the “super app” model toward a streamlined “simple app”, focusing on high-frequency use cases and embedded wallets for partners. The pivot signals a maturing phase in Indonesia’s fintech scene, where scale is pursued not by bloated feature sets but by precision, efficiency, and AI-driven fraud prevention—hallmarks of sustainable embedded finance. Read more
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Yokke & Tada expand 455K EDC network 💳
Yokke (payment startup) and Tada (loyalty app), backed by Mandiri Capital, are deepening their reach in offline-to-online commerce through Indonesia’s 455,000 EDC network. By embedding loyalty features into payments, the collaboration reflects a broader regional trend: traditional merchants are increasingly plugged into digital ecosystems, where payment rails double as data-driven marketing and retention channels. Read more -
ShopBack turns profitable 🛒
Regional cashback giant ShopBack announced it has achieved profitability this quarter, a rare milestone in Southeast Asia’s highly competitive consumer fintech space. The achievement highlights a shift in investor focus toward unit economics and sustainable business models, suggesting that consolidation and profitability may increasingly be favored over pure growth at all costs. Read more
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QRIS goes global
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By mid-2025, QRIS had reached 57 million users and 39.3 million merchants, of which 93.16% are MSMEs. Transactions totaled 6.05 billion, with a value of Rp 579 trillion (USD ~36 billion). The volume of digital payment transactions through QRIS grew 148.50% year-on-year (YoY). The rapid uptake underscores how QRIS has become the backbone of Indonesia’s digital payment infrastructure, driving MSME digitalization at scale and cementing its role as a national financial inclusion tool. Read more
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Beyond domestic growth, QRIS has expanded regionally and is now interoperable in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and Japan. China is currently piloting QRIS integration with UnionPay and local partners, with full operational rollout expected by the end of 2025. Saudi Arabia plans to enable QRIS for Hajj and Umrah pilgrims by 2026 through integration with the Nusuk card system. South Korea is also preparing to adopt QRIS through a bilateral initiative, with pilots expected following a 2024 MoU between regulators and payment system operators. Read more
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On the cross-border front, QRIS transactions with Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand totaled Rp 1.66 trillion by June 2025. Since their respective launches, the Indonesia–Malaysia corridor recorded 4.31 million transactions (Rp 1.15T), Indonesia–Thailand logged 994,890 transactions (Rp 437.54B), and Indonesia–Singapore saw 238,216 transactions (Rp 77.06B). These figures demonstrate early but meaningful traction in regional interoperability, supporting ASEAN’s broader digital payment integration agenda. Read more
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