Benedicto Haryono, indonesian financial super-app KoinWorks founder used billboards and fintech to fight COVID-19 in his country

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID19 times? 

Benedicto Haryono : Just like others, we are subject the impact of COVID-19. Launching #BehindTheWorks movement (the nickname of KoinWorks family members), we started the Work From Home for the last 3 months. for us, the health of the #BehindTheWorks members is the most important.

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded or joined this company

Benedicto Haryono : The journey of KoinWorks began when I came back to my home country after spending my time living & studying in the United States. In 2015 my best friend, Willy Arifin and I decided to establish KoinWorks, a digital financial service for the unbankable and underbanked that carry the mission to bring the accessible and affordable financial services for everyone so they can achieve their dreams.

How does your company innovate? 

Benedicto Haryono : We try to be customer-centric. All our  products and innovation do answer customer’s needs. We do research and take the customer feedback seriously, so we can give them the best innovation and features to answer what they really need. We found out that most Indonesian are hard to get the best financial service to cater their personal and business needs. That’s one of the reasons why we evolved as Super Financial App. We offer range of financial services for personal and SME so that everyone grabs the opportunity to achieve their financial goals.

We took specific initiatives during this pandemic, such as fundraising program through KoinDonasi to produce 100,000 test kit and research for vaccine development, using more than 10 billboards space around Jakarta. These billboards conveyed the government appeal to urge people not to gather or avoid crowded areas, often wash their hands with anti-soap bacteria, and not to touch their face with unclean hands; making KoinWorks the first company in Indonesia to utilize its massive advertising space to deliver health messages.

We also cooperate with two well-known Insurance company to provide the COVID-19 insurance for those who donate and also help the SMEs by funding their business through KoinWorks platform. Furthermore, we used social media to create a social movement called #LokalSupportLokal, we invite others, brands, and media to take part in this movement by donating their social media page to promote the SME’s product so they can keep up in this difficult situation.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyEGSqq30-IQGVBRr-lm8hg

How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business and how are you coping?

Benedicto Haryono : The effect of this pandemic is really huge, especially for the global economy. We are trying to help the SMEs by giving them some payment relaxation following the government regulation. We have secured new funding during pandemic from several investors. As an institution with the protection of our lenders’ capital at our core, being well-capitalized is always a top priority. These investments, especially during these turbulent times, show tremendous confidence in our abilities as best-in-class loan originators in the fintech space in Indonesia. We do adjusted our credit scoring system too with the current condition so we can create a good quality loan.

Did you have to make difficult choices and what are the lessons learned?

Benedicto Haryono : What I learned is that the trust in the brand is very important for financial institutions. It’s something that you need to build for years but surely worth it.

How do you deal with stress and anxiety, how do you project yourself and your company in the future?

Benedicto Haryono  : On my day-off, I like to play online games and cook sometimes as well as catch up with some friends. Those activities help me stay healthy. I do believe that KoinWorks can grow bigger and bigger in the future since the market is really extensive.

Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?

Benedicto Haryono : As we evolved as the first Super Financial App in Indonesia, we don’t have any head to head competitors in Indonesia. we do have competitors for each product. As I mentioned before, we run this business as a customer-centric company. I believe that keeping this moto, we can always be a top of the players in our customer’s hearts.

 Your website and link to online video if any

www.koinworks.com