KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 15): Software company Securemetric Bhd has invested in a 5% stake in Indonesian digital startup PrivyID for a cash consideration of 20.25 billion Indonesian rupiah (RM6.03 million).

The company signed a conditional share subscription agreement with PT Privy Identitas Digital today, it said in a statement.

PrivyID is Indonesia’s first non-government institution certified certificate authority (CA), as well as the first private company in Indonesia that was granted access to the National Identification database.

CA issues Digital Certificates that are verifiable small data files that contain identity credentials to help websites, people, and devices represent their authenticity online.

The core offerings of PrivyID are Digital Signature and E-KYC (E Know Your Customer) using asymmetric cryptography and public key infrastructure, ensuring that each signature is linked to a unique and verified identity.

“This deal would advance Securemetric’s strategic objective of becoming one of Southeast Asia’s leading digital security players. I foresee a lot of synergies and cross-selling opportunities that we can leverage on PrivyID, mainly due to their database of over 4.5 million individual users and 215 large enterprises including Indonesia’s largest banks and telco companies, prominent fintech startups, as well as several small-medium enterprises," Securemetric chief executive officer Edward Law Seeh Key said.

Law said digitalisation is imperative and unstoppable, even for the used-to-be long process of credit card and bank loan applications.

"Everyone is moving towards digitalisation, given the enhanced efficiency and the ability to enjoy greater cost savings. One of the many cross-selling opportunities for Secumetric is the offering of our Centagate Solutions that can be integrated to PrivyID’s offerings,” he added.

According to Securemetric’s Bursa filing, PrivyID has established a portfolio of more than 215 Indonesian companies, including the biggest banks and telcos in Indonesia, prominent fintech startups and several SMEs.

As at Jan 14, there were over 4.5 million individuals registered as PrivyID users.

Securemetric closed unchanged at 51.5 sen for a market capitalisation of RM125.45 million.