Meet Rama, after having spent a considerable amount of time establishing Gojek, chose to take a break from his work. His days were filled with resting and recuperating after his hard work in the now-giant startup, only taking invitations as a speaker related to the development of the startup industry in Indonesia.

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While in one of his speaking engagements, he visited Surabaya, where he met with an old friend. From the conversations they had regarding the state of SMEs in Indonesia, Rama's friend decided that Rama should visit Bangilan to see what the SMEs are like for himself. Bangilan is an area in Tuban, a small area in East Java about 2 hours drive from Surabaya. 

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There, Rama chatted with local farmers. Beginning from the conversations he had, it turns out that they have a lot of financial problems, especially capital investments, which means they can't grow their businesses. So far they have had difficulty getting financial access from banks and so, they have no other option but to get a loan from local money lenders who charges very high-interest rates.

 

Rama then decided to provide those farmers with a lower interest loan. Because of this, the response to their visit to Bangilan was met with a very positive sentiment since the farmer SMEs felt like they are helped by the loan. From this experience, Rama found out that there are many Indonesians who still need affordable access to financing.

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He saw this as a good opportunity to help Indonesians in need of safe financial support. So, together with Dino and Windy, AwanTunai was established. With a grand vision to help financial inclusion by opening up affordable bank capitals to unbanked micro MSMEs by creating inclusive economic growth to improve people’s lives.

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