Fintech firm KoinWorks recorded a 71% uptick in revenue in 2022, but it also widened its losses by over 5x compared to the previous year.

The Jakarta-based company posted US$15 million in net revenue during the period, according to filings with Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA). Besides peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, KoinWorks also offers financial services such as banking, supply chain financing, invoice factoring, and business-to-business buy now, pay later.

Nathan Yoles, chief marketing officer (CMO) at KoinWorks, attributed the revenue increase to higher income from its loan operations. He explained to Tech in Asia that KoinWorks generates revenue through two key channels: fees paid by borrowers and lenders for facilitating transactions and interest income earned from lending services on the platform.

In 2022, KoinWorks’ disbursed loans jumped by 108% while its outstanding loans also rose by 34%. Its product offerings beyond P2P lending also contributed to the increase, Yoles says.

Founded in 2016 by Benedicto Haryono and Willy Arifin, KoinWorks expects to book a net profit by the end of 2024. However, the company did not elaborate on whether it expects to be profitable for the whole of 2024 or by the final quarter of the year.

Heavy investing in 2022

KoinWorks registered losses of US$23.5 million in 2022, up from US$3.65 million in the previous year. The company says this was due to “high investment for automation and product development” throughout the year.

In January 2022, KoinWorks secured US$108 million via a series C round, bringing its total disclosed funding to US$168 million.

The company acquired rural bank BPR Asri Cikupa in September 2022 and later rebranded it to KoinWorks Bank. At the time, the firm stated that the acquisition was aimed at supporting the “long-term development of KoinWorks’ business” and expanding its financing coverage.

That same year, the company built transactional banking infrastructure to digitize some processes while also injecting capital into KoinWorks Bank.

Fueled by product development and other improvements, KoinWorks’ general and administrative expenses soared by 220%. On the other hand, its finance costs also shot up by 87%, increasing along with the surge in disbursed loans.

“From 2022 onwards, KoinWorks became more focused on reducing its cost of finance by getting funds via time deposits offered by KoinWorks Bank,” Yoles says.

The company made several moves to slash expenses in 2022, including laying off 70 employees or about 8% of its workforce and discontinuing its education student loan service, KoinPintar.

Path to profitability