Lumina Gets Funding from Y Combinator and Alpha JWC Ventures

Work community platform startup Lumina received funding from Y Combinator (YC) and Alpha JWC Ventures with an undisclosed amount. Through this funding, Lumina has a mission to help as many as 80-120 million blue-collar workers in Indonesia who have limited access and decent opportunities to find work and develop careers.

Lumina claims to be the first platform that provides professional community features for blue collar workers in Indonesia. This platform provides a community-based recruitment and benefits system.

In his official statement, Lumina Co-founder & CEO Aswin Andrison said, his party seeks not only to provide access to employers, but also to self-development, and opportunities to improve the economy better.

“By leveraging the power of our exclusive community and artificial intelligence-based job recommendations, we want to democratize hiring and automate quality matching between blue-collar workers and employers,” said Aswin.

Lumina was founded in September 2021 by Aswin Andrison, a serial entrepreneur who has focused on blue-collar workers, FMCG, wholesalers, and MSMEs for the past 16 years. 

Besides Aswin, former Twitter developer Tri Ahmad Irfan co-founded Lumina. Aswin himself previously founded Stoqo in 2017, then the business closed in April 2020.

In the last two months, Lumina has more than 100 thousand job seekers, of which as many as 20 thousand job vacancies have been filled. Lumina also recorded 1,000 new registrants and the addition of 3,000 new workers every day.

Group Partner Y Combinator Gustaf Alstromer said this funding will help unlock Lumina’s potential to bring change to the Indonesian workforce. “We have seen startups in other countries bring this labor market online and the Lumina team is the right team to face this challenge,” he said.

Meanwhile, Co-Founder & General Partner of Alpha JWC Ventures, Jefrey Joe, added that Lumina will play an important role in maximizing workforce, individual and business potential.

Attempts To Accommodate Blue-Collar Work

Blue collar workers are defined as people who do menial work for an organization and are paid hourly wages. Workers in this category are often identified as workers who do not require higher education and only need physical strength.

Generally, blue-collar workers cover the fields of manufacturing, mining, to construction. According to a research, the turnover rate or turnover of blue-collar workers has reached 20%.

This condition can be burdensome for the company because according to the same survey, the cost to overcome turnover can reach $4,569. According to BPS data in 2019, low-skill workers dominate the informal sector with a figure of 57.27%.

Startup players in Indonesia have begun to look for opportunities to overcome various problems among blue-collar workers since the last few years.

Some startups that provide blue-collar jobs include MyRobin, Sideline, and Workmate. This platform is based on agency applications or job marketplaces.

Founded to Provide Greater Economic Opportunity

Blue-collar or HR workers who do manual work and earn hourly or daily wages are very abundant in Indonesia. Unfortunately, there are still many of them who do not have adequate access to opportunities to improve their quality of life.

In response to this problem, Aswin Andrison and Tri Ahmad Irfan founded Lumina, the first work community platform from Indonesia. They provides greater economic opportunities for blue-collar workers.

“Blue-collar workers in Indonesia currently still don’t have the opportunities they deserve. They lack access to career and development resources that can provide them with better economic opportunities. We at Lumina are eager to provide them with an effective platform for self-development,” said Lumina co-founder and CEO, Aswin Andrison.

Since its establishment in September 2021, this startup has assisted more than 100 thousand job seekers. And filled more than 20 thousand job vacancies from well-known companies such as Shopee, Lemonilo, Kargo, Astro, and Sirclo.