Charity as the Nucleus of Financial Innovation: Vikra Ijas of Kitabisa

Indo Tekno Podcast

According to a report by Charities Aid Foundation, Indonesia is considered the world’s most generous nations. Kitabisa Co-founder and CEO Vikra Ijas attributes Indonesia's global leadership in giving over the past six years to "religious and cultural influences" that have shaped "a very collectivist society." Kitabisa is Indonesia's largest online crowdfunding platform for social and personal medical causes. The company last year acquired a life insurance company, largely as an extension to its Saling Jaga offering (trans. "protecting each other), which is a mutual aid program where members can protect each from critical illness. Vikraan, an Endeavor Entrepreneur, explains the diversification as a move beyond crowd-funding, which is "limited to a more reactive or responsive type of aid," to becoming "more strategic and prepared for future risks, which is facilitated license-wise through insurance." Kitabisa currently facilitates roughly one donation every second, and is moreover now emerging into one of the country's fastest-growing digital life insurance platforms. Vikra also reflects on the persistent guidance and support that Kitabisa's board members have offered the company, particularly e-commerce platform Bukalapak co-founders Achmad Zaky and Fajrin Rasyid.