The development of digital infrastructure, ongoing digitalization efforts, and growing demand for inclusive, technology-driven financial solutions are among the top opportunities for foreign fintech firms entering the Indonesia market, according to a new guide produced by the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) and the Indonesia Fintech Association (AFTECH).

The paper, released in December 2025, outlines the market landscape, emerging opportunities, and practical strategies for building, launching, and scaling fintech products in the Indonesian ecosystem. It draws on joint research by Austrade and AFTECH, interviews with industry stakeholders, and focus group discussions involving regulators, investors, and fintech companies from both countries.

Underserved segments

The guide identifies several avenues for Australian firms to collaborate with local fintech stakeholders, leveraging Australia’s innovation and expertise, as well as Indonesia’s scale, diversity, and demand for inclusive financial solutions.

Focus group discussions revealed that payment system fintech leaders are seeing considerable potential among rural and low- to middle-income groups where cash usage and low financial literacy still dominate.

Indonesia, a large and diverse archipelago with over 250 million people, 1,300 ethnic groups, 700 spoken languages, and 17,000 islands, faces complex educational challenges. In 2018, 70% of 15-year-old students performed below the minimum competency level in literacy and numeracy. According to Indonesian Deputy Minister for Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Helvi Moraza, financial literacy remains overall limited at only 49%.

The report highlights initiatives such as community-based products and targeted education efforts, such as digital banks offering combined personal-and-business (P2B) accounts and digital literacy programs, to accelerate fintech adoption. These initiatives can help drive transaction volumes and financial inclusion beyond Java, Indonesia’s most populous island and economic hub, reaching smaller and more rural areas of the country.

In parallel, the use of alternative data in innovative credit scoring, drawing on e-commerce and telecom footprints, can broaden SME credit access, reduce write-offs, and refine behavioral-based risk profiling in consumer lending.

Indonesia has over 65 million micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), contributing approximately 60% of GDP and 97% of employment, according to the International Finance Corporation (IFC). However, micro and SME credit still accounts for only 18.7% of total bank credit, reflecting a large financing gap, says Indonesia’s Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs, Maman Abdurrahman. Redseer estimates that Indonesia has a US$235 billion credit gap, representing 76% of total MSME financing needs.

Cross-sector and cross-border collaboration

Beyond underserved segments and regions, the Austrade and AFTECH paper underscores the growing potential for cross-sector and cross-border collaboration.

Fintech companies increasingly view partnerships across sectors, as well as between fintech, banks, and non-financial entities, as key growth avenues. These collaborations create opportunities to integrate payment systems with platforms such as e-commerce or healthcare ecosystems, supporting initiatives like preventive-care financing and streamlined vendor management.

For example, e-commerce platform Bukalapak is partnered with online lenders Amartha, Modalku, and PohonDana to provide loan facilities for offline small business owners and individual sellers part of its network. Similarly, Bhinneka partners with KoinWorks to provide a financing solution for MSMEs’ online business capital expenditures.

Shokran, a Malaysian provider of Sharia-compliant financial products and services for businesses, is partnered with Xendit to enable customers to send and receive local payments across Southeast Asia, and support businesses operating between the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Product innovation

A third major area of opportunity highlighted by Austrade and AFTECH is product innovation. In particular, traditional Indonesian banks increasingly regard fintech collaboration as vital to evolving into lifestyle “super-apps” that integrate investment, insurance, and commerce features to meet diverse consumer needs.

Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), for example, operates BRImo, a super-app offering a wide range of financial services, including daily transactions, digital account openings, investment features, and bill payments. It claims a user base of 42.7 million.

Another prominent digital banking platform is wondr by Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI). The app allows users to monitor and analyze their finances, supports real-time financial needs with features such as domestic transfers, bill payments, and transfer schedule settings, and provides a variety of financial products including investments and savings. The platform claims 10.5 million users.

Insurtech players also highlighted innovation opportunities involving artificial intelligence (AI) for fraud detection, recommendations, and underwriting.

For example, Qoala, a major Indonesian insurtech marketplace, uses AI to streamline processes, accelerate product development, and bolster fraud detection capabilities.

PasarPolis, another prominent Indonesian insurtech platform, applies big data, ML and AI in its customer-service chatbot, conversational AI applications, and image analysis for insurance claim assessments.

Meanwhile, cryptocurrency exchanges are reportedly exploring Web3 solutions, real-world asset tokenization, staking, and bank-linked investment products, to capitalize on Indonesia’s young, tech-savvy population, creating further opportunities for industry partnerships.

Indonesia’s booming fintech industry

Indonesia is home to one of the world’s most dynamic fintech markets, which now boasts over 400 active fintech companies, with around 280 headquartered locally. Among these, four are unicorn startups, with valuations of US$1 billion or more. They span digital lending, consumer solutions, and wealthtech, and have gained strong traction with their innovative digital products.

Akulaku is a digital finance platform providing installment shopping, virtual credit cards, and digital banking services worth US$2 billion; Kredivo Group is a fintech company offering digital credit and buy now, pay later (BNPL) services across Southeast Asia valued at US$1.66 billion; Ajaib is an investment platform for trading stocks and mutual funds, worth US$1 billion; and Xendit is a payment gateway that provides digital payment infrastructure and APIs for businesses in Southeast Asia valued at US$1 billion.

Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Indonesia, based on images by Who is Danny and EyeEm via Freepik