Indonesian lender BCA sets aside $28m for corporate VC arm CCV

Bank Central Asia (BCA), Indonesia’s biggest lender by market capitalisation, has set aside Rp400 billion ($27.8 million) for its venture capital arm Central Capital Ventura (CCV), a senior executive said on Thursday.

CCV is an early-stage investor with over 26 companies in its portfolio. CCV has been investing from the balance sheet of BCA and predominantly in fintech companies.

“This year we [will] allocate Rp400 billion to expand our venture capital [activity],” BCA president director Jahja Setiaatmadja told reporters in an online earnings briefing.

While CCV is predominantly focused on the fintech space, the BCA top executive said, “we let [CCV] decide on which sectors to enter.” Among its recent investments, the corporate VC has backed game developer Agate and SaaS company Verihubs.

CCV has, through its $15-million maiden fund, backed insurtech startup Qoala, payment company Wallex, and biometric platform Element, among others. As reported by DealStreetAsia earlier, BCA had injected an additional Rp 200 billion ($14.26 million) into CCV in 2019 to pursue further investments in fintech startups. Last year, Dutch early-stage fintech investor Finch Capital was reportedly planning to set up a joint venture capital fund with CCV.

BCA, meanwhile, has reported a 15.8% growth in net profit at Rp31.4 trillion in 2021 despite challenges induced by the pandemic. In what can be seen as a sign of economic recovery, the country’s largest lender registered growth across all segments of its loan portfolio including corporate, commercial, consumer, and sharia financing.

“It was, honestly, beyond our expectation,” Setiaatmadja said, noting that the lender was initially targeting a net profit of below 10% in 2021 due to a tepid business climate.

BCA saw its mobile banking transaction grow 50.4% on annual basis to Rp4,049 trillion and its internet banking grow 33.7% annually to Rp15,118 trillion.

BCA shares increased 1.30% on Thursday and closed at Rp7,800 apiece. BCA announced its earnings after market hours.

Bank Mandiri’s profit soars

State-owned Bank Mandiri, the top Indonesian lender in terms of assets, has recorded a 66.8% growth in net profit at Rp28.03 trillion in 2021 on the back of strong income and lower expenses.

Bank Mandiri’s return on equity reached 14.3%, higher than 8.12% in 2020.

Bank Mandiri too reported a significant growth in its mobile app users. The lender introduced two mobile apps last year – Kopra for corporate customers and Livin’ for individuals.

While Bank Mandiri is not a digital bank and still maintains 2,500 branches across the archipelago, the lender is pushing for the use of its app to meet most of its customer needs.