nexus by Standard Chartered has established partnership with beauty and personal care e-commerce platform Sociolla to introduce financial products to their users

Jakarta – Standard Chartered Bank announced its partnership with Sociolla through nexus, its “Banking as a Service” solution. In line with the Bank’s vision to enable convenient access to financial services for tech-savvy consumers across its market, the partnership will enable Sociolla to offer financial products, like savings accounts, loans and credit cards that are powered by nexus in late 2021, subject to regulatory approvals.

This is the second partnership which nexus has forged in Indonesia, giving Standard Chartered Bank the opportunity to reach the unbanked and expand its customer base in the world’s 4th most populous country, where the e-commerce adoption rate is the highest in the world.

With consumer behaviour shifting in the wake of Covid-19, more Indonesians are migrating online to purchase consumer goods on e-commerce platforms¹. The pandemic has also revealed the need to accelerate digitisation efforts in banking, through which Standard Chartered Bank aims to increase financial inclusion.

Andrew Chia, Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered Bank Indonesia, said: “We are excited to announce our partnership with Sociolla, Indonesia’s leading beauty and personal care e-commerce platform. This second partnership with an e-commerce platform reaffirms Standard Chartered Bank’s commitment to grow our footprint locally. We believe the future of banking is digital, and nexus is poised to leverage strategic partnerships that enable greater financial access for Indonesians.”

This partnership is in line with Sociolla’s ambition to transform the beauty industry through technology. Co-Founder and President Director of Social Bella (parent company of Sociolla), Christopher Madiam said: “We are truly excited in being the first beauty-tech company that is collaborating with Standard Chartered Bank to provide beauty enthusiasts with this innovative banking solution. At Sociolla, we are proud of our tech-led capabilities in providing customers with a holistic and unique beauty experience that truly meets our customers’ needs. The banking service is an important added value to continuously complement our integrated beauty ecosystem, especially now that we have been noticing a growing demand from our customers for trusted digital payment.”

Furthermore, digital payment has a huge role in promoting Indonesia’s digital economy. With the huge volume of beauty and personal care products being bought online, it is imperative that the industry caters to adapt with the customers’ rising adoption of digital payment methods. Christopher adds: “As e-commerce continues to develop a bigger presence among Indonesian beauty enthusiasts, we hope to expand our customer base through a more convenient and comfortable online purchasing experience within our ecosystem.”

Announced in March this year, nexus was incubated at SC Ventures, Standard Chartered’s innovation, fintech investment and ventures arm². Through this “Banking as a Service” solution, digital platforms and ecosystems like e-commerce, social media or ride hailing companies, will be able to offer loans, credit cards and savings accounts co-created with the bank to their customers under their own brand name. The bank intends to further roll out the service to markets in Asia, Africa and the Middle East with the right regulatory frameworks and established digital platforms.

Standard Chartered has been actively experimenting with new business models to meet the evolving needs of its clients. Most recently, the Bank announced the official launch of Mox, its new virtual bank created in partnership with PCCW, HKT and Trip.com, to the general public in Hong Kong. It also set up a joint venture with Assembly Payments this February to develop and deliver next generation payment solutions and has also built a digital open platform, Solv, to help Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in India and other markets grow by providing access to financial and business services.

¹ McKinsey & Company: Optimistic, digital, generous: COVID-19’s impact on Indonesian consumer sentiment, 9 July 2020
² nexus by Standard Chartered: Introducing nexus by Standard Chartered, 2020

For further information please contact:

Diana Mudadalam
Country Head, Corporate Affairs
Standard Chartered Bank Indonesia

Febrina Herlambang
Head of Public Relations
Social Bella Indonesia

Sociolla

Social Bella is a leading integrated beauty technology company in Indonesia. Established in 2015, Social Bella’s business has evolved from a beauty-and-personal care e-commerce to a large and sustainable online and offline ecosystem for beauty and personal care. At present, Social Bella has created several business units and is estimated to serve around 30 million users in 2020: (1) SOCO, the largest consumer review online platform for beauty and personal care products in Indonesia. (2) Beauty Journal, the leading beauty and lifestyle online media with end-to-end O2O marketing service. (3) Sociolla, the number one beauty and personal care e-commerce in Indonesia, which now also has offline stores with the OmniChannel concept. (4) Lilla by Sociolla, the most comprehensive beauty and personal care e-commerce service specifically designed for Indonesian mothers and her loved ones. (5) Brand Development, the business unit that offers end-to-end distributor service for beauty and personal care brands, trusted by numerous leading international manufacturers.

Social Bella most recently was awarded by Forbes with the Disruptor Award for the A-List as the Most Promising Growth-Stage Startups in 2019.