Andi Taufan Garuda Putra

Founder and CEO Amartha

Last Reviewed: September 18, 2026

Executive Summary

Andi Taufan Garuda Putra is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Amartha, an Indonesian financial technology company that provides working capital to micro-entrepreneurs in rural Indonesia, the large majority of them women. He started the business in 2010 with 10 million rupiah of his own capital, running it initially as a group-lending microfinance operation on Grameen Bank lines, and later rebuilt it as a technology platform that connects urban and institutional funders with rural borrowers and prices risk using data on grassroots economic behaviour. As of March 2025 the company reported having disbursed more than 35 trillion rupiah to 3.3 million micro, small and medium enterprises, and in June 2025 it raised 55 million US dollars from three European development finance institutions. Taufan also served as a presidential special staff member to President Joko Widodo from November 2019 to April 2020, a tenure that ended in his resignation following public criticism of a letter he sent on official letterhead.

Career Highlights

• Founded Amartha in 2010 with initial capital of 10 million rupiah, operating it as group-based microfinance modelled on Grameen Bank principles.
• Rebuilt Amartha after 2016 as a technology-driven peer-to-peer lending platform linking funders to rural micro-entrepreneurs, predominantly women.
• Led the company to report more than 35 trillion rupiah disbursed to 3.3 million micro, small and medium enterprises as of March 2025.
• Raised 55 million US dollars in June 2025 from Swedfund, Finnfund and the Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries.
• Appointed in November 2019 as one of seven millennial presidential special staff members to President Joko Widodo, with a portfolio covering innovation and the MSME sector; resigned in April 2020.
• Began his career as a business consultant at IBM Global Business Services from 2008 to 2009.
• Recognised by the Ashoka Young Change Makers Award in 2010, the SATU Indonesia Award in 2011, Ten Outstanding Young Persons Indonesia in 2014, and Forbes’ 2018 list of 30 promising growth-stage startups.

Professional Journey

Born in Jakarta in 1987 and educated at schools in Jakarta, Makassar and Bandung, Taufan read business management at the School of Business and Management at Institut Teknologi Bandung. He joined IBM Global Business Services as a business consultant in 2008 and stayed for roughly two years. The work took him into rural Indonesia, where he saw at first hand how little access small producers and traders had to formal credit, and he left in 2009 intending to do something about it.

Amartha began in 2010 with 10 million rupiah. Its early form was conventional microfinance rather than technology: group lending to women in rural communities, with joint liability among members, following the Grameen Bank model. The approach worked but did not scale, and the constraint was as much analytical as operational, since there was no reliable way to assess the creditworthiness of borrowers with no formal financial history.

Taufan took a Master of Public Administration at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, completing it in 2016. On his return he rebuilt Amartha as a peer-to-peer lending platform, using technology to match urban and institutional funders with rural borrowers and building risk models designed to predict creditworthiness for people the formal banking system does not score. The company has since layered payment and risk-segmentation services on top of lending, describing its model as combining responsible lending, digital innovation including AI-enabled risk profiling, and a hyperlocal reading of grassroots behaviour. Growth followed: by March 2025 Amartha reported 35 trillion rupiah disbursed to 3.3 million enterprises, and in June 2025 three European development finance institutions, Swedfund, Finnfund and BIO, committed 55 million US dollars to fund further lending to women entrepreneurs in rural Indonesia.

In November 2019 President Joko Widodo appointed Taufan one of seven millennial presidential special staff members, a group brought in for expertise outside conventional government, in his case the micro, small and medium enterprise sector and inclusive grassroots growth. The appointment ended after five months. On 1 April 2020 he sent a letter to district administrators, written on official Cabinet Secretariat letterhead, requesting support for his private company’s involvement in a COVID-19 programme in villages. The letter drew immediate public criticism on grounds of conflict of interest and use of official authority for private benefit. Taufan apologised publicly and submitted his resignation, which the President accepted in April 2020. No finding against him by a court or oversight body has been located. He has continued since as Amartha’s chief executive and speaks regularly on financial inclusion, including at the World Economic Forum.

Education

Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government

Master of Public Administration, 2016

Institut Teknologi Bandung, School of Business and Management

Bachelor’s degree, Business Management