PayPal Joins Indonesian Venture Firm to Develop Fintech Startups

(Bloomberg) -- PayPal Holdings Inc. is teaming up with Indonesian venture-capital firm Alpha JWC Ventures to back emerging financial technologies that can be developed for Southeast Asia.

Under the partnership, Jakarta-based Alpha JWC will contribute as much as $5 million in funding for PayPal Incubator, said Alpha JWC Managing Partner Will Ongkowidjaja. After being selected by PayPal and Alpha JWC senior executives in Singapore and San Jose, startups will receive coaching and mentoring from PayPal executives, said Jerry Tso, general manager for PayPal Singapore Development Center.

This is the first time PayPal Incubator, which launched in Singapore in 2016 to support financial-technology startups, is extending the program to other parts of Southeast Asia with funding from a VC firm. The program will aim to fund several fintech startups from Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand.

Alpha JWC is an early stage investor with a $50 million fund. It’s currently raising a $100 million second fund to continue investing in Southeast Asia’s burgeoning market for fintech and consumer businesses, according to Ongkowidjaja. Startups it has backed include crowdfunding platform Funding Societies, automotive marketplace Carro, and OnlinePajak, which helps companies pay taxes online.

To contact the reporter on this story: Yoolim Lee in Singapore at yoolim@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Robert Fenner at rfenner@bloomberg.net, Peter Elstrom

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