With fresh investment, crowdfunding site DanaDidik wants to improve access to student loans

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Indonesian student loan crowdfunding platform DanaDidik has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from impact investment fund Garden Impact.

The startup will use the funds to scale and enhance its technology and service.

DanaDidik is a crowdfunding platform for Indonesian students. They pay back the loan to their supporters in installments once they’ve graduated and found a job. The disbursement happens through the platform. Only students who already have a university spot and will graduate within two years are eligible to apply. The maximum loan size they can get is US$770. DanaDidik takes a cut from successful campaigns.

“Garden Impact’s business is in line with our vision. We need patient capital,” the startup’s co-founder Dipo Satria told Tech in Asia today.

Singapore-based Garden Impact supports small businesses that create jobs and provide services and products for the poor and marginalized. While expecting returns, impact funds can have longer lifecycles than a typical VC firm.

Since launching last year, DanaDidik received 7,000 applications from students, but only a few were able to reach their funding goal.

When DanaDidik joined the Plug and Play accelerator program earlier this year, it learned a lot in terms of “adjusting the strategy,” Satria says.

While before, they targeted a general audience to find individuals willing to chip into the loan – the way crowdsourcing generally works – DanaDidik now wants to work with enterprises and family offices to improve the campaign success rate. The idea is to link campaigns with corporate social responsibility programs.

“According to USAID study, about 19.4 million Indonesian youth do not attend higher education due to limited financial support,” Satria points out. There is also limited government support, which leaves many aspiring students stranded.

With the new funding, DanaDidik has another shot at increasing the number of underprivileged students who obtain a university degree.

This post With fresh investment, crowdfunding site DanaDidik wants to improve access to student loans appeared first on Tech in Asia.

from Tech in Asia https://www.techinasia.com/fresh-funding-student-loan-crowdfunding-site-danadidik-takes-shot-improving-access-higher-education
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