Empowering tomorrow’s digital women: How Amartha advances ICT access for girls and women in rural Indonesia

Each year, the world marks International Girls in ICT Day, a reminder that closing the gender gap in digital skills is not only a matter of equity—but also a prerequisite for digital financial inclusion. Access to technology, digital literacy, and online financial tools shapes how women and girls participate in the modern economy. Yet, in many emerging markets, millions remain excluded from these opportunities.

One company helping change this narrative is Amartha, an Indonesian microfinance fintech platform supported by BIO through the Amartha Inclusive Capital Fund SPV. BIO has granted a USD 15 million loan to the fund to scale Amartha’s reach among underserved women in rural communities.

Amartha: Digital Finance at the Grassroots

Founded in 2010 as a microfinance institution, Amartha evolved into a peer‑to‑peer (P2P) digital lending platform in 2015—connecting investors directly with micro‑entrepreneurs across rural Indonesia. Over time, it has built a robust technological infrastructure that automates borrower onboarding, data gathering, and credit scoring.

By March 2024:

1.5 million women borrowers were connected to the platform.
Borrowers operated in 92,000 villages across Indonesia.
The average loan size was around USD 375, tailored for microbusiness needs.

Amartha’s model is particularly impactful because it integrates:

Digital financial services
Group lending methodologies inspired by the Grameen model
A dedicated app offering e‑wallet services, payment points, and self‑service loan applications

This hybrid offline–online model allows Amartha to reach last‑mile communities where digital and financial exclusion overlap most acutely.

Closing the digital gender gap: Why it matters on International girls in ICT day

The digital divide remains highly gendered. Without foundational digital literacy, girls and women struggle to access online financial services, training opportunities, e‑commerce platforms, and broader digital participation. International Girls in ICT Day emphasizes:

Access to technology and digital tools
Education in ICT skills
Opportunities for economic empowerment in increasingly digital economies

These priorities strongly align with Amartha’s mission and operations.

Digital payments and e-wallets are powerful tools for financial inclusion, especially in rural communities where traditional banking infrastructure is limited. Through our investment in Amartha, we aim to accelerate the adoption of secure and accessible digital financial services, empowering women entrepreneurs to participate fully in the digital economy and manage their finances with greater autonomy and transparency

Joris Totté, CEO of BIO

How Amartha advances digital inclusion for women and girls

Providing Digital Financial Access at Scale

Amartha focuses exclusively on women micro‑entrepreneurs, offering them digital microcredit, payment services, and financial training. This directly tackles the digital financial inclusion gap in rural areas. The platform delivers basic financial services—mostly productive loans—and literacy trainings to underserved microentrepreneurs, mostly women in rural areas.

Enabling Digital Participation Through Technology

Amartha’s continued digital transformation includes government-supported digital literacy training for rural villagers, helping micro‑entrepreneurs engage with the digital economy and enhancing their competitiveness. Such initiatives support girls and young women who often have the least access to ICT tools and training.

Building Confidence and Skills Through Inclusive Fintech Tools

Innovations like AmarthaFin, which allows borrowers to become micro‑lenders themselves, help women gain confidence using technology, manage digital transactions, and participate in more advanced financial activities.

These interactions cultivate practical ICT competencies—including mobile banking, digital record‑keeping, and digital payments—critical for broader digital readiness.

Creating Role Models and Economic Mobility

With 99% of Amartha’s 3.3 million customers being women entrepreneurs, the platform fuels a virtuous cycle of women-led microbusiness growth.
These women become local figures of digital and financial capability, shaping social norms that encourage girls to aspire to digital confidence and economic independence.

Recent developments further underscore Amartha’s growing role in advancing women’s digital and financial inclusion. In 2025, Amartha secured USD 55 million in funding from three European development finance institutions—Swedfund, Finnfund, and BIO—forming part of a wider USD 199 million syndicated facility led by the IFC. This financing supports Amartha’s expansion into more rural communities and strengthens its digital infrastructure, including AI‑enabled risk profiling and the AmarthaFin app. According to FinTech Futures, Amartha has disbursed over USD 2.1 billion in working‑capital loans to 3.3 million MSMEs, more than 90% of which are women‑led, demonstrating the platform’s outsized impact on women’s economic empowerment in Indonesia.

Our model combines responsible lending, digital innovation, including robust AI‑enabled risk profiling and management, and hyperlocal understanding of grassroots behaviour.

Andi Taufan Garuda Putra, Founder & CEO of Amartha

Digital inclusion is impossible without ensuring that girls and women can develop the skills, access the tools, and benefit from the financial technologies shaping today’s world. Amartha’s model—bringing digital microfinance to rural communities—demonstrates how fintech can narrow the ICT gender gap.

As we celebrate International Girls in ICT Day, Amartha stands as a powerful example of how targeted investments, like BIO’s support, drive both digital empowerment and economic opportunity for women and girls across Indonesia.