Mandiri Capital, the corporate venturing arm of Indonesia state-owned financial services provider PT Bank Mandiri, will invest up to RM200bn ($15m) in as many as eight startups in 2017, CEO Eddi Danusaputro has told DealStreetAsia.
Danusaputro said the firm will focus on financial technology companies, investing between $750,000 and $2.25m in each business.
Established in November 2015 with an initial budget of RM500bn, Mandiri Capital’s mandate is to invest in startups developing payment systems for e-commerce platforms in order to beef up parent company Bank Mandiri’s digital capabilities in that area.
Bank Mandiri has partnered social media company Facebook’s Indonesian unit to offer a service that provides users who click on online advertisements with easy access to a debit payment page.
The new service is aimed at some 57.9 million small and medium-sized businesses in Indonesia, the majority of which depend on social media to advertise their products and services.
Danusaputro told DealStreetAsia: “There are four to five companies, maximum six to eight, within the Southeast Asian region that we want to invest (in) in 2017.”
Mandiri Capital is looking to close two to three more deals in the coming weeks, and has committed about RM200bn so far this year.