Four Years Of Establishment, Grab's OVO Expands Digital Financial Services For The Community

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Digital payment company OVO said it had achieved several achievements in the four years of its existence since 2017.

It was stated that the 4.0 technology business entity was not only a liaison for digital transactions such as transportation, food ordering, and online shopping, but also facilitated the public in investing, insurance, and loans.

OVO's Head of Corporate Communications, Harumi Supit, said that his party is committed to continuing to answer consumer needs through the latest services.

"We continue to grow. The facilities that we provide are expanding to meet the needs of the community, especially those who are still underbanked (not yet optimally using financial services) and unbanked (not yet touched by financial services)", she said in a press statement, quoted Thursday, October 14.

According to Harumi, the various products presented by OVO are expected to be the best solution in supporting public financial activities. This is evidenced by the acquisition of new users which is increasing day by day.

"Various data also shows an interesting fact that digital payment applications can provide a strong and complete foundation for the community so that it becomes a one-stop solution that is easy, fast, safe, and convenient to use, no need to switch applications to get a variety of diverse financial services", she said.

In detail, Harumi explained several products that are now a mainstay, including money market mutual funds, both conventional and sharia-based, called OVO Invest. Harumi claims that since the investment service was introduced in the first semester of 2021, the number of potential investors has reached 450,000 people.

As for insurance services, OVO launched a digital-based sharia life insurance product in collaboration with Prudential Indonesia.

Then this digital platform also penetrated the MSME sector by releasing the Business Capital OVO service as a form of support to 70 percent of people's business actors who cannot access capital loans for expansion.

"Through these various financial facilities, OVO seeks to address the gap in the financial ecosystem in Indonesia so that the population of underbanked and unbanked people is reduced", she said.

"Going forward, we will continue to strive to meet the growing needs of consumers to achieve better financial literacy and inclusion", concluded Harumi.

For information, recently Grab officially controlled 90 percent of OVO's share ownership from the previous 39 percent. Now Grab is the majority owner of OVO's shares after acquiring it from Tokopedia and Lippo Group owned by a conglomerate, Mochtar Riady.

Grab Holdings Inc officially acquired share ownership from PT Tokopedia and Lippo Group in PT Bumi Cakrawala Perkasa, OVO's parent company. Previously, Tokopedia had a 36.1 percent stake, Lippo Group had a 7.2 percent stake, and Grab had a 39.2 percent stake.

Other shareholders in PT Bumi Cakrawala Perkasa, are Tokyo Century Corporation which owns 7.5 percent, and Wahana Innovation Lestari with 5 percent.