It is the aim of providing payment services and making inroads into the educational loan market.
KASIKORNBANK (KBank) has assigned KASIKORN VISION (KVision) to jointly invest in Zenius – a startup which provides the second-largest education technology (EdTech) platform in Indonesia that is increasing its capital by more than US$40 million.
Through this collaborative effort, KVision aims to establish a customer base for payment services while also penetrating the educational loan market in Indonesia – the world’s fourth-most populous country, with more than 270 million people.
Pattarapong Kanhasuwan, KBank Executive Vice President and KVision Chairman, said that KVision serves as KBank’s investment arm that is responsible for scouting innovative firms in order to develop new technological capabilities to support the Bank’s customers in the AEC+3 region, including the Indonesian market.
Indonesia is a large marketplace with a population of more than 270 million – the most populous country in ASEAN and the world’s fourth-largest population. Given that Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelago, development of innovative technology which connects people residing on several islands is of great interest.
Notably, its EdTech market has seen thriving growth. As Indonesia is transitioning to the digital age, the supplementary education business has been flourishing, as evidenced by demand for tutorial classes for university admission and skill development courses.
There has been a proliferation of EdTech platforms in this archipelagic country to accommodate the demands of people residing on different islands.
Recently, KVision has jointly invested in Zenius, Indonesia’s second-largest education technology platform startup, with a high engagement rate, more than 20 million application downloads and a broad range of curriculums for both students and working-age people. Zenius’ management team has experience in the education sector and startup business at the unicorn level.
The current investment will offer an opportunity for KBank to work with Zenius on the development of services to offer Indonesian consumers greater convenience and access to education on the digital platform along with payment system service, various transactions and loan service to apply for online courses in the future.
It is expected that Zenius’ customers, particularly those of the working-age population, who are primarily middle class with a stable financial position, will be a targeted segment for such loan service, given that they have good debt servicing ability.
An analysis of P2P loan data in Indonesia shows that online P2P lending transactions for education purposes trended higher over the past three years, with a 24-fold jump in the amount of loan disbursement in 2021, as compared to that reported for 2018.
For this investment, KBank and KVision will invest via KBank’s Beacon Venture Capital.
Rohan Monga, Chief Executive Officer, Zenius, added that the current capital increase of Zenius is worth more than US$40 million and comes from five joint-venture companies, namely MDI Ventures, Northstar Group, Alpha JWC, Openspace Ventures and KVision, the latest joint-venture partner.
Once this funding round concludes, Zenius aims to continually reinforce its status as the leader of the EdTech industry in Indonesia.
Zenius is the pioneer in Indonesia’s education technology business. Presently, the company has more than 20 million users and the largest pool of learning courses in the country. Of these users, there are approximately 1 million regular users.
The company has already developed marketing plans to create brand awareness and recognition, expand its user base and the contents within its curriculums, and introduce four major products, namely;
- ZeniusLand: edutainment product that targets primary school learners, with Zenius serving as Disney’s exclusive partner in Indonesia’s EdTech industry
- Zenius: product covering content required of Grade 10-12 learners in preparation for in-class examinations and college entrance exams
- ZenPro: curriculum which focuses on building career skills for the working-age population
- Online Merge Offline (OMO): product that offers a combination of online and offline learning in classrooms. Zenius has acquired Primagama, Indonesia’s second-largest tutoring institution, to further improve upon this form of blended learning.
KVision
- KBank founded KASIKORN VISION COMPANY LIMITED (KVision) as an investment holding company.
- KVision has seed money of US$245 million, or approximately Bt8 billion (registered capital of Bt5 billion) with an investment scope that spans the globe.
- KVision initially focuses on building a strong foundation in four target countries, including China, where there is a large pool of fintech companies; Indonesia; Vietnam, where tech startups have been among the fastest-growing sectors in ASEAN; and Israel, an incubator of tech talents where new technologies originate.
- The investment may be held directly by KVision or through Beacon Venture Capital Fund, which was founded in 2017.
Zenius
- Founded in 2004 by Sabda PS and Medy Suharta, Zenius is the pioneering EdTech company in Indonesia.
- Zenius provides an online learning platform that focuses on developing a student’s critical thinking skills and scientific reasoning.
- The curriculums were developed by two Indonesian educators and brothers – Sabda PS and Wisnu Subekti.
- Zenius aims to develop an even smarter, brighter and more fun Indonesia for all by sparking the intrinsic spark of learning in every student.
- Today, Zenius offers a series of products across different verticals, with its main product being the Zenius app.
- The app focuses on K12 students and has a wealth of over 100,000 concept videos and hundreds of thousands of practice questions.
- enius follows the most recent Indonesian national curriculum, and in the 2019-2020 academic year, Zenius was accessed by over 20 million users from 300 rural and urban areas across Indonesia.
- The Zenius app is available on both Google Play and the App Store.
