Jakarta – PT Astra International Tbk (“Astra”), one of Indonesia’s largest diversified holding companies, through its subsidiary PT Sedaya Multi Investama (“SMI”), and WeLab, a leading technology enabler for consumer lending in China and Hong Kong, today announced their fintech joint venture company, PT Astra WeLab Digital Arta (“AWDA”).

AWDA aims to provide financial products and solutions powered by advanced big data technology, which will help individuals achieve financial freedom through better and more efficient access to credit. AWDA will offer mobile lending products to retail consumers and provide financial technology solutions to enterprise customers.

With accelerating smartphone user growth (growing at a 10.5% CAGR through 2021 ), high internet connectivity (55% internet penetration rate ) and a large, young population of digitally active consumers, Indonesia is an attractive market primed for fintech innovation. AWDA aims to meet the credit demands of the market through its innovative mobile consumer lending platform.

AWDA has been officially registered with the Financial Services Authority (OJK) operating under the registration number of S-626/NB.213/2018. AWDA is expected to launch its mobile application, Maucash, in the third quarter of 2018. Maucash (learn more at www.maucash.id or follow Maucash on Instagram @maucash) aims to provide a convenient and seamless purely online borrowing experience, enabling customers to quickly obtain credit anywhere and anytime. AWDA will use big data analytics to generate deep insights and better assess the creditworthiness of borrowers.

AWDA will leverage Astra’s renowned local brand, vast distribution network and strong presence in financial services and auto distribution and WeLab’s best-in-class proprietary credit technology and fintech know-how to deliver innovative financial products to consumers in Indonesia.

“We look forward to broadening our digital offerings to further promote financial inclusion in Indonesia,” said Suparno Djasmin, Director of Astra. “We constantly look to partner with industry leaders and we believe that WeLab is at the forefront of fintech innovation. Through this partnership with WeLab, we want to offer cutting-edge solutions to empower individuals throughout Indonesia.”

Simon Loong, Founder and CEO at WeLab, stated: “WeLab is very excited to expand our fast-growing business beyond China and Hong Kong to our third market, Indonesia. Our expansion demonstrates the scalability of our tech-enabled business model and big data risk management technology. We believe our game-changing technology, combined with Astra’s operational experience running market-leading businesses in Indonesia and strong local presence, will allow us to redefine consumer lending in Indonesia.”

About Astra International:
PT Astra International Tbk was established in 1957 in Jakarta as a general trading company under the name Astra International Inc. In 1990, for the purpose of the company’s initial public offering (IPO), the name of the company changed to PT Astra International Tbk, followed by listing its shares on the Indonesia Stock Exchange under the ticker code ASII. Astra has developed its business by implementing a business model based on synergies and diversification within seven business segments, consisting of: 1) Automotive, 2) Financial Services, 3) Heavy Equipment, Mining, Construction & Energy, 4) Agribusiness, 5) Infrastructure and Logistics, 6) Information Technology and 7) Property.

Astra conducted business operations in all parts of Indonesia under the management of 222 subsidiaries, joint ventures and associates, and was supported by 221,719 employees, as per June 2018. Astra continually aspires to become a corporate citizen that is a pride of the nation, one who is actively involved in the national efforts to improve the welfare of the Indonesian people. To this end, Astra runs business activities by a balanced combination of the business’ commercial interests and non-business contributions through 9 foundations it nurtures, also through ongoing social responsibility programs focused on four basic areas: health, education, environment and small and medium enterprises development.

For further information, please visit www.astra.co.id .

About WeLab:
Founded in 2013 in Hong Kong, WeLab is reinventing traditional financial services by creating seamless mobile lending experiences. With its proprietary risk management technology, WeLab effectively analyzes unstructured mobile big data within seconds to make credit decisions for individual borrowers. WeLab operates Wolaidai (我来贷), one of China’s largest mobile lending platforms, and WeLend, Hong Kong’s leading online lending platform. The company also partners with traditional financial institutions which utilize WeLab’s technology to offer fintech-enabled solutions to their customers.

WeLab was named in a KPMG-sponsored report as one of the top 100 fintech companies in the world – #8 in China and #36 globally – and was ranked by Deloitte as the #1 fastest growing tech company by revenue in Hong Kong and #4 in China. WeLab’s investors include Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Berhad, CK Hutchison’s TOM Group, International Finance Corporation (a member of the World Bank Group), Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund, China Construction Bank (International), Sequoia Capital and ING Bank.

For further information, please visit www.welab.co.

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