Bisnis.com, JAKARTA - Players in the financing industry aka multifinance/leasing are starting to seriously compete for innovation by building their own various digital platforms.

Many of the industry players use digitalization as an online financing channel. Others choose a platform -building strategy to embrace a particular digital ecosystem. In fact, there are also those who deliberately plunge into the virtual world in order to attract the hearts of young people.

Issuer of motorcycle financing, working capital of SMEs, and multipurpose credit PT Wahana Ottomitra Multiartha Tbk. (WOM Finance/WOMF) is one example of a multifinance that has just introduced its latest digital innovation as an online financing channel.

WOMF launched an application titled Friends in two versions, namely for consumers and partners such as agents and motorcycle dealers. This is to make it easier for consumers and partners to access all the company's financing products.

"Hopefully, Kawan will be able to reach people who still have difficulty gaining access to finance in general, also in areas far away from the WOM Finance branch office," said WOMF Wibowo Marketing Director at the launch of Kawan, Tuesday (22/2/2022).

Meanwhile, a subsidiary of PT Bank Maybank Indonesia Tbk. (BNII) hopes that there will be 100,000 Kawan users this year, both from the general public, as well as 350,000 existing WOMF consumers. This strategy is expected to be able to help target a new increase in financing to Rp5.5 trillion by the end of next year.

Similarly, PT Mandala Multifinance Tbk. (MFIN) also continues to optimize its digital platform called Mantis to maintain market share in rural areas. The difference is, MFIN focuses on Mantis users to be able to directly become Mandala Finance agents.

MFIN Director of Information Technology Felix Nugroho explained that users who successfully participate in offering loan for motorcycles, multipurpose, electronics, furniture, etc., will receive an attractive commission. The commission will be received by the Mantis agent via an e-wallet that can be transferred directly to a bank account or can be picked up at the nearest Mandala branch.

"We even have examples of consumers who have installments with us, the value of which can be covered by a commission to become a Mantis agent. This is a real picture of us growing with users. Currently, there are 47,406 people registered as Mantis agents. We are optimistic we will get more than 100,000 agents in the end of 2022, "he told Bisnis, Wednesday (23/2/2022).

Felix added that his party has also equipped Mantis with several new features. In addition to offering Mandala Finance financing products, Mantis agents can also sell credit and data packages from various providers at affordable prices.

As a multipurpose application, Mantis also provides Payment Point Online Banking (PPOB) which can be an additional product offered; payment of postpaid or prepaid electricity bills (tokens), PDAM, BPJS and others.

Meanwhile, PT Adira Dinamika Multi Finance Tbk. (ADMF) began to integrate the adiraku application with three other platforms it built, namely the momobil.id and momotor.id vehicle marketplaces, as well as the moservice.id vehicle service ordering service platform.

Adira Finance President Director Hafid Hadeli explained that the integration of all ADMF digital platforms into adiraku is a strategy to provide comprehensive financial solutions across the automotive industry ecosystem. Ranging from purchase, maintenance, to financing for automotive parts and aftermarket.

This strategy is somewhat similar to the Astra Group through the MOXA application, which contains a 'group' of financial services under the auspices of Astra Financial or PT Sedaya Multi Investama.

In contrast, the Astra Group relies on Maucash's P2P lending financial technology platform (tekfin) and AstraPay digital wallet tekfin in terms of paylater scheme financing in the realm of vehicle service and spare parts. While all multifinance Astra Financial is more focused on serving vehicle loans in their respective segments.

Finally, the financing issuer PT BFI Finance Indonesia Tbk. (BFIN) also has a digital initiative to expand its services, in the form of building a subsidiary in the field of financial technology PT Finansial Integrasi Teknologi (FIT) alias Pinjam Modal.

Business Director of BFI Finance Sutadi explained that the existence of Capital Borrowing will expand the scope of business, where BFIN can be the financier (lender) of the Capital Borrowing institution that will channel its loans to SMEs in the digital ecosystem.

That is, Capital Borrowing will be BFIN's tool to serve the digital ecosystem that requires short -term financing of the productive sector quickly or seamlessly, directly from the partner's digital platform.

As an illustration, examples of Capital Borrowing partners that have been realized, among others, the Ninja Xpress shipper ecosystem, UMKM actors Sahabat SiCepat, paylater to run market traders on the GrosirOne platform, and the latest to join the FMCG roaming distributor ecosystem called Boom Motorist.