BIDUK

“Berinvestasti Dalam Usaha untuk Kemajuan” (Investing in Business for Progress) or BIDUK for short is a lending platform aimed at meeting the needs of Indonesia-based small and growing businesses, with an emphasis on those owned by women.

BIDUK aims to show that flexible debt products are well suited to meet the needs of women owned and led enterprises in Indonesia (and throughout Southeast Asia).

Ultimately, this experiment will help refine which debt products and services meet the needs of these underserved businesses.

Based on decades of experience in emerging markets and closing financial transactions in nearly 60 countries, Athena has identified a clear gap in the financial products available for small and growing businesses (SGBs), and in particular those led by women (known as wSGBs). wSGBs are typically too large for microfinance lending, yet too small to meet the requirements of commercial lenders. This is because most financial intermediaries, in order to protect their own risks, are unable or unwilling to develop financial products that meet the actual business needs of SGBs. Additionally, these traditional financial products requiring standard collaterals and audited financials posit an unintentional bias against wSGBs, where in conservative contexts like Indonesia, women are unlikely to own assets or receive financial loans without permission from male family members.

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Removing barriers to accessing investment products for SMEs in Indonesia.

To close the gap in serving wSGBs in Jakarta (Indonesia), Athena developed a proof of concept that combines new financial products and business advisory services. Launched in March 2019, BIDUK seeks to demonstrate that flexible, commercially priced, debt products are incredibly well suited to meet the needs of wSGBs in Indonesia (and potentially, throughout Southeast Asia).

Examples of flexible financial products include the introduction of a grace period for principal payments, considering moveable assets as collateral, and having variable repayment schedules based around actual cash flows. These products also reduce the focus typically placed on exit strategies for equity investments, as traditional liquidity events may not be realistic in these markets. Loan sizes for the proof of concept phase range between USD $15,000 and $75,000.

Goal for BIDUK

Within the given context, BIDUK will attempt to reduce the credit gap for wSGBs in Indonesia by piloting financial products and developing relationships that will help wSGB run better businesses — thereby minimizing or eliminating barriers to these businesses accessing capital from the formal financial sector.