Kudo Planned to Rebranding and Release Fin-Tech Lending

Kudo, a short of Kios Untuk Dagang Online (Stall for Online Trade) has at least two big plans until early next year. This company currently provides e-commerce services for people who do not have access or do not want to do online transactions.

Shortly, this startup plans to rebrand and launch loan service (fin-tech lending). The CEO and Co-Founder of Kudo, Agung Nugroho, said that the rebranding will be held this year. However, he is still reluctant to elaborate on how the rebranding will be done.

“Let’s wait and see. The obvious one is that we will be better, more understandable, and capable to serve even more amazing stalls. That is our goal,” he said on the sidelines of the Fin-tech Summit event at the Jakarta Convention Center, Senayan.

Kudo Also Plans to Launch New Services Next Year

Aside from the rebranding project, the company also plans to launch new services next year. These new services are expected to help Kudo agents get more income. Recently, the number of Kudo agents has reached more than 2 million agents throughout Indonesia.

The company is targeting four million agents to join until 2021. Agung is optimistic that the target can be achieved since the growth of the agent is around 44% each year. Agung said that the fastest growth of Kudo agents is in Aceh, Bengkulu, Central Kalimantan, Gorontalo, and West Sumatra.

As a result, transactions in the five provinces grew 132% last year. Kudo also plans to expand to other countries. “But, it (the expansion) may not happen shortly because the upcoming one or two years, we want to focus on Indonesia,” said Agung.

According to Agung, the need for online-based buying and selling services is still high. His party is now working with banks and fin-tech companies, such as BRI, BNI, and OVO to provide payment services. Kudo also provides a team to visit the agent regularly and monitor business development.

The Growth of Kudo after Two Years of Grab Acquisition

It has been two years after Grab acquires Kudo as its subsidiary. Kudo has continued to become a startup which focuses on empowering traditional stalls and small business through technology. According to Agung, traditional stalls are still part of a large pillar for the Indonesian economy.

Founded in 2014, Kudo helps traditional stalls to have complete services. These include providing credit charging facilities, payment of bills and travel tickets, and to send and deposit money. Kudo agents can also stock wholesale goods through an application. It also became a place to register as a Grab driver-partner.

Furthermore, Kudo has also become an online-to-offline (O2O) tool for several e-commerce sites, such as Lazada, Elevenia, Berrybenka, and Sociolla. E-commerce can combine the experience of shopping online and offline users. Thus, it is said that Kudo can grow faster after Grab acquisition.

Agung revealed that the acquisition of Kudo by Grab is simply a coincidence. In 2017, Kudo sent its technicians to Singapore and learned from larger startups like Grab. However, because of miscommunication, the technical team from Kudo met the corporate finance team. It then opened up the acquisition chance.