Fintech Company Preview: Raiz Invest

By Marvel Kinantan, DIGITS Staff Writer

“I need a lot of money to start an investment!” a common misconception of those who want to initiate their investor life, some resource says that it is better to start investing at the age of 20 or earlier, but the problem is that those people in their 20s are still college students who don’t have a lot of idle money. According to data from Central Bureau of statistic of Indonesia (BPS), as per May 2018 there are 190.5 million people aged 15 and above in Indonesia. Out of this number, only 17.8% or approximately 33.9 million people have at least bank account. Moreover, based on Indonesian Central Securities Depository (KSEI) data, the number of mutual fund investors in Indonesia stood at mere 820000 as per July 2018. worry not fellow college students! Let me introduce you to ouur digital helper RAIZ INVEST. RAIZ INVEST was launched in Australia in February 2016.

This application works by collecting users’ spare change from their spending. When the users are registered to the platform they can link their debit cards and/or E-Wallets. Whenever a user spends from those debit cards or E-Wallets, Raiz will roundup each transaction amount to nearest IDR5000 and once the accumulated roundup amount hit the threshold of IDR10,000 that amount will be automatically invested into the mutual funds.

“Little did people know that they can actually start investing from very small amount of money without affecting their lifestyle. Let’s take spare change people have from their spending every day. Usually people simply throw their spare change into a jar or a piggy bank, only to find – much to their surprise – that over time they can accumulate quite a significatn amount of money. Investing spare change in other words, allow people to realise their dreams.” Said Melinda N. Wiria, chief executive officer of Raiz Invest Indonesia.

How Raiz Works (based on Raiz Australia)

First, connect a bank account to your Raiz account. This is where all deposits and withdrawals to and from your Raiz account will come and go.

Next, you’ll need to choose a Raiz investment portfolio. The portfolio’s are ‘Conservative’, ‘Moderately Conservative’, ‘Moderate’, ‘Moderately Aggressive’, ‘Aggressive’ and ‘Emerald’. In Raiz invest Indonesia, until the moment this article is written Raiz offers only ‘Conservative’, ‘Moderate’, and ‘Aggressive’, we’ll see if in the future the service would be the same as Raiz Australia The offering of portfolio’s are designed to suit the differing investment goals of investors, in terms of acceptable level of risk and planned time in the market

For example, an aggressive portfolio may suit you if you want higher returns in the longer term, but will accept a high risk of losing capital over the medium term.

Then, set up your spending accounts in Round-Ups. Raiz can track credit cards, debit cards and other bank accounts and will round up every purchase to the nearest dollar and keep track of this amount. When your round-ups hit your round-up threshold, we’ll withdraw it from your bank account and invest it for you.

Your new shares will then appear in your Raiz account, where you can watch them potentially grow over time.

Is it Legit?

Yes it is. PT Raiz Indonesia is registered and monitored by Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OJK) and already have the permission to operate as Agen Penjual Efek Reksa Dana (APERD) from OJK on December 10 2018 which is based on Surat Keputusan Dewan Komisioner Otoritas Jasa Keuangan KEP-19/PM.21/2018. Furthermore this spare change investment service will come to Indonesia in the third quarter of 2019. Well let’s see how it goes fellow investors!