P2P Payments App Xendit Available in Indonesia

Xendit, a money-transfer service intended for South Asian countries, is launching today in Indonesia.

The company will be looking to beat the likes of Venmo to market as the go-to private money-transfer service in Southeast Asia. Right now the service allows users to transfer money within private groups, as well as chat. The substantial move for Xendit will be making those transactions public according to co-founder Moses Lo.

13,000 people have begun using the service since starting beta a few months ago. Users put money onto Xendit and from there can send or request money from friends within the service or their phone numbers. In addition to Indonesian banks, ATM networks are also accessible through Xendit.

“In Southeast Asia, it’s the perfect storm,” Lo commented. “One is a huge population with technology, two is nascent financial services, and third is it’s one of the most viral regions. In Indonesia, there’s (greater than 100 percent) penetration for phones. These people don’t have a bank account, penetration credit card is 3 percent, but there’s a huge population with technology.”

Other companies like Venmo and WeChat are obviously a threat to a money-transfer startup such as Xendit. Also, there is a very significant possibility that telecom companies may come up with a plan to compete in the same market and overlap modest startups like Xendit.

Not to mention PayPal, which is always looming over the shoulders of companies like Xendit like a big older brother stamping his authority. As it stands now, neither PayPal nor Venmo offer peer-to-peer payments in Indonesia.

In any case, Indonesia seemed to be a priority for Xendit, with the size of the market alone making it a valuable asset.

“Indonesia is so big, that’s where [we figured] we’d start and want to win.” Lo said. “The vision is Southeast Asia, the Philippines, Thailand, those with similar profiles among other Asiatic countries.”