Go big by starting small
- Starting small with a population as large as Indonesia’s seems counterintuitive, but that’s exactly the approach 500-backed fintech startup FinAccel takes for the product development of their Kredivo platform.
- “We always push the production little by little to see the effect and the impact of the model. So, we start with the simple things and the small things,” explained Joel Samuel, VP, Head of Machine Learning Engineer. That is part and parcel of effective machine learning and data science.
- The reason? So mistakes can be quickly identified and fixed, creating lower-risk learning opportunities. “We believe in ‘fail fast and learn fast’,” he added.
- Kredivo is popular in Indonesia for their Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) service, which solves the glaring gap in financial inclusion in the country. With only 17 million credit cards, or 0.07 credit cards per capita, the low credit card ownership rate coupled with high mobile phone penetration rate created a sweet spot for a large BNPL market.
- Kredivo is, however, more than just BNPL. Today, Indonesians can pay their electricity bills, top-up their phone credit, and even take out a personal loan. The team recently launched a motorcycle loan, and will soon roll out a loan product for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). All this made possible for over 250 million people with data science and machine learning!
- Hear more from Joel here.
Stories you may have missed this week:
- Khailee Ng on Southeast Asia’s healthtech trends in 2022
- CrediLinq wants to improve lives through financial education and inclusion
- Glife Technologies lands US$3M to build a better food future for Southeast Asians
- abillion is distributing wealth to advocates of sustainability through social media
- Kredivo and Ramayana deepen Paylater penetration in tier 2 and 3 cities
- Carousell launches new scheme to nurture young entrepreneurs in Asia
- Carsome opens experience centre in East Java.
