BukuWarung, a technology-driven financial platform for small business owners in Indonesia, has raised $60 million in a Series A round of funding led by Valar Ventures and Goodwater Capital. The other participating investors include Draper Associates, Y Combinator, Facebook’s Startup Investment Program, Catalysts.vc, Fireside Investment Group, InReach Ventures and others.
The company will use the funds to invest in product development and expand its geographic reach across the country by offering an integrated suite of services including an app to manage their financials; loans and credit options; access to insurance products; ways to save on taxes; and more. BukuWarung will build new features such as live banking integrations, identity verification, management dashboard analytics and smart billing solutions. Additionally, it plans to extend its partnership with Beidou Capital and launch several White Label partnerships with large banks such as BCA Bank Indonesia.
Overview
BukuWarung is a digital platform that enables small businesses in Indonesia to manage their bookkeeping, payroll, and finances. It also helps them keep track of their finances and simplifies the accounting process.
Recently, BukuWarung announced that it raised $60 million in its Series A round, led by Valar Ventures and Goodwater Capital.
This article will give you a brief overview of BukuWarung and the details behind its latest round of funding.
Overview of BukuWarung’s Business Model
BukuWarung is a financial inclusion platform that helps informal businesses access banking, insurance and other services. The company’s products enable micro entrepreneurs to easily record their incomes and expenses, get recognized in the financial sector, scale their businesses, and access a suite of services from different partners. By digitizing the informal business sector through its open affordable platform, BukuWarung helps millions of people escape poverty.
The company operates in Indonesia, India, Bangladesh and Mexico with an integrated suite of products that serves more than 5 million customers. Its users have access to advanced mobile banking, financial assistance from third-party lenders and partner organizations, customizable digital accounting tools and the ability to accept digital payments from consumers via mobile phones. BukuWarung also provides small business owners with tools to manage payrolls or salaries for workers or employees regularly while ensuring compliance with related taxes or deductions.
In addition to its core product suite, BukuWarung also offers numerous connected services such as credit scoring systems for SMEs in Indonesia; free SME financing options that can provide up to US $1 million in capital; insurance coverage for micro entrepreneurs; bulk purchase discounts; supplies credit facility; free consultations with local accountants tailored towards micro businesses; loyalty programs through partnerships with global brands like Unilever; online marketplaces connecting micro businesses with customers across India and Mexico; and collaborations with numerous banks offering special offers on merchant services, inclusive loan terms and other financial solutions catered towards new business owners.
By leveraging its expansive network of partners including enterprise software providers, government initiatives and payment providers – BukuWarung provides customers across multiple countries an extensive array of options for digital entrepreneurialism in an increasingly digital world.
BukuWarung’s Products and Services
BukuWarung is a small business management software platform that provides various services and products to help entrepreneurs build and scale their businesses. The platform helps small businesses manage their operations, finances, and customer service, while offering access to fintech services such as loans, insurance, payments, and more. BukuWarung’s mission is to empower small business owners to grow their businesses by automating tedious tasks like bookkeeping and accounting. Additionally, its low-cost pricing makes it an affordable option for many entrepreneurs.
BukuWarung has been steadily growing since it was founded in 2018. It serves over 1 million micro-entrepreneurs across 7 countries: Indonesia, India, Mexico, Brazil, Sri Lanka , Thailand and Colombia. The platform’s core product offering comprises five key features: business dashboard; accounting; customer service management; finance; and integrated digital banking services such as loan disbursement & repayments. BukuWarung’s tools are designed with user experience in mind to simplify routine processes for entrepreneurs so that they can focus on improving their products or services instead of getting tied down in administrative tasks.
BukuWarung Raises $60 Mn In Series A Round Led By Valar Ventures And Goodwater Capital
BukuWarung, a Jakarta-based fintech startup, has raised $60 million in a Series A round led by Valar Ventures and Goodwater Capital. The investment round was participation from Indonesian conglomerate Lippo Group, and was also joined by existing investors such as Y Combinator, Golden Gate Ventures, and East Ventures.
The new capital injection, which came less than a year after the startup’s $2.1 million seed round, will be used to strengthen BukuWarung’s technology and expand its product and finance its international expansion plans.
Investors Involved in the Round
Valar Ventures, Goodwater Capital and Y Combinator led the Series A round of funding in BukuWarung. Participants in the round include Asian venture firm SMDV, Golden Gate Ventures and 500 Startups, as well as angel investors such as Nadiem Makarim (Co-Founder of Gojek), Beta Labs (Founders of Tokopedia) and entrepreneurs such Prajogo Pangestu, Masayoshi Son’s early employee Dragan Sabolic, and GoPay executive Pavel Naiya.
The round also saw participation from existing investors Rocketship.vc and notable investors from the Southeast Asian startup ecosystems such as Sequoia Capital India’s Abheek Anand and Nimble Venture Partner’s Hooi Ling Tan (Co-founder of Grab). Additionally, a group of technology leaders such as Arianna Huffington (Thrive Global Founder & Co-Founder), Kemal Ezedine (YouTube VP Engineering), Etienne Desclides (Gilead President) and Pippa Hetherington Brown (Former Twitter Country Director UK & Ireland) participated in this round.
Amount Invested
BukuWarung, an Indonesian fintech startup focused on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) has raised $60 million in its Series A round led by Valar Ventures and Goodwater Capital along with IDinvest Partners, Earlybird Venture Capital, Hummingbird Ventures and others. The funding is set to accelerate BukuWarung’s vision to revolutionize the existing financial system in Indonesia by improving financial inclusion through technology.
The raise will focus on growth investments such as creating innovative products and services designed to help Indonesian MSMEs, who remain largely underserved due to a lack of access to formal financing. It will also include initiatives such as providing access to institutional capital for MSMEs who need it most by providing SMEs with a direct connection to financier’s working capital needs.
Moreover, the funds are set to be used for marketing campaigns to increase awareness about the need for financial services for MSMEs to grow their businesses. Furthermore, development of top-tier talent is another key investment priority given BukuWarung’s commitment towards innovation and diversification of its workforce diversity while strengthening its existing team with industry insiders.
Use of Funds
With the new funding, BukuWarung has revealed that it will focus on product and engineering to build solutions that improve small business owners’ experience, along with growth marketing and hiring. Additionally, the funds will be used to further expand across Indonesian regions and digital infrastructure.
Adding Valar Ventures and Goodwater Capital to the BukuWarung family signals the company’s ambition to build a long term digital financial services platform for SMEs. A framework is designed to foster a vibrant network of services, data-driven insights and solutions for them. BukuWarung has recently integrated e-commerce and inventory management capabilities into its FinTech platform as part of this mission. In addition, the company plans to keep investing in product features such as payments gatewaying, loan disbursement services, payroll solutions and cash advances for small businesses to become an all encompassing suite for providing financial support.
Impact of the Investment
Indonesian financial technology (fintech) startup BukuWarung has raised an impressive $60 million in its funding round led by Valar Ventures and Goodwater Capital. This is one of the largest Series A rounds raised by a startup in Southeast Asia.
With the new investment, BukuWarung will be looking to expand their platform and make a greater impact in the Indonesian digital payments market. First, let’s look at how this investment will impact the company.
Expansion of BukuWarung’s Reach
The investment will help BukuWarung in its mission to expand the reach of their digital payment and financial services platform to millions of small businesses, micro entrepreneurs, and un-banked individuals across Indonesia. The company has already developed a nationwide over-the-counter agents network for cash deposits and cash withdrawals called BukuWash. It ultimately wants to extend its reach to all corners of the country. It also plans to invest heavily in developing new products such as financing facilities and other banking products for small businesses.
The funds will be used for strengthening the company’s financial position, improving its technology infrastructure, hiring talent, expanding partnerships with banks and empowering agents in rural areas. Additionally, BukuWarung plans to engage with more merchants from various sectors which include healthcare, education, retail outlets etc., ensuring that they have access to digital payments solutions that are safe and secure.
The Series A funding round is expected to spur further innovation at BukuWarung as they strive towards becoming Indonesia’s trusted gateway into a more efficient user experience with financial services geared towards inclusion. By providing access points such as mobile banking apps and point-of-sale terminals at affordable costs, BukuWarung intends to make setting up shop easier than ever before – creating thousands of jobs in the process – while also offering greater financial stability by allowing their customers better control over their spending habits.
Improved Financial Inclusion
The Series A round of $60mn which Valar Ventures and Goodwater Capital led has the potential to greatly improve financial inclusion in Indonesia, which has an estimated 40 million micro businesses. BukuWarung’s cloud-based platform enables these businesses to access easy working capital, enabling them to better manage their cash flow and tap into existing markets.
The company is leveraging a digital platform that enables users to connect on an online dashboard to invoice customers, track sales, manage payroll data and retrieve payments through cashless transactions. This significantly reduces the time taken for customers to enter their financial data and provides access to formal credit from commercial banks. The investment will also provide greater access to critical services such as health insurance, accounting tools and saving options for small business owners who typically have limited savings or banking needs.
This funding is also expected to catalyze local economies in sectors such as retail, banking, technology solutions for small businesses and customer service/support platforms in Indonesia. Furthermore, banks looking to extend credit lines via BukuWarung’s platform could accelerate familiarity with digital finance among Indonesian entrepreneurs; this digitization may result in additional efficiency gains across the wider economic system. With sufficient resources now placed into advancing digital inclusive solutions within Indonesia’s micro business sector this capital investment could improve the livelihoods of people throughout the country while benefitting a broader range of stakeholders – from financers to vendors & customers alike.
Enhanced Customer Experience
The funds raised from the Series A round will help BukuWarung enhance its customer experience in multiple ways through technology, product, user experience and engagement. In addition, the company will use the capital to consolidate and expand merchant networks, build an ecosystem for merchants to grow their businesses, and launch new products specifically designed to enable and drive digital financial services access among its customers.
As part of this effort to enable financial inclusion among the underserved micro-merchants in Indonesia, BukuWarung also plans to use the funds to build a new suite of digital products tailored specifically for empowering micro-entrepreneurs. This includes CRM tools and business insights dashboards that offer customized insights on managing their business more efficiently.
Additionally, BukuWarung plans to use the capital to reduce gaps in access to digital payments solutions across Indonesia’s diverse socio-economic landscape by investing in technology and product innovation to solve payment issues on mobile money platforms as well GoPay or Ovo.
Conclusion
The Series A round saw participation from all existing investors including Y Combinator, Sequoia Capital India, Satyen Kothari, BEENEXT and Rebright Partners. BukuWarung will use the funds to scale its proprietary SME banking system and launch new financial products such as savings and investments for underserved entrepreneurs across Indonesia.
This funding comes at an important juncture for BukuWarung when it seeks to transform payments, banking and financial services for 10 million Indonesians who rely on its platform. With the most recent funding fillip, BukuWarung aims to bring more than 500 million unbanked Indonesian micro-merchants into the Digital Business Age.
BukuWarung’s mission is to create financially-inclusive futures for millions of underserved Indonesians by providing them with secure, convenient, affordable, end-to-end digital business solutions. The company said this new financing round is an important step towards achieving that goal faster.