Receiving Seed Funding, BukuWarung Planned to Expand the Market

BukuWarung, a bookkeeping startup application provider for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), received seed funding led by East Ventures. In a press release on Tuesday (7/4), besides East Ventures, several other investors were involved, including AC Ventures, Golden Gate Ventures, Tanglin Venture Partners, and Michael Sampoerna.

In addition, there are also several angel investors such as Grab, Gojek, Flipkart, PayPal, Xendit, Rapyd, Alterra and Zen Rooms.

BukuWarung Co-founder Abhinay Peddisetty said that the initial funding will be used to expand the market. At present, bookkeeping of cash and credit transactions from BukuWarung can be enjoyed by 250 thousand MSMEs in 500 cities/districts in Indonesia.

“However, that figure has not reached 1% of the 60 million stallholders in Indonesia, which almost entirely depend on traditional recording methods,” Abhinay said in a press release on Tuesday (7/4).

He is optimistic that the expansion of BukuWarung will be successful, because, in the first few months, BukuWarung achieved strong market growth. Over the past two months, for example, BukuWarung noted, the use of his application (engagement) grew by 500%.

Majority in second and third-tier cities. In addition to expanding the market, it also utilizes the funds for technology development. BukuWarung will also recruit new talents in the fields of engineering, product, design, and partnership.

BukuWarung Helps Time Efficiency of MSME Performers

Abhinay said, by using the BukuWarung application, users could save time and expenses, especially for conventional bookkeeping. According to him, the stall costs up to Rp 110,000 for manual bookkeeping using ledgers, stationery, and calculators.

Users can also receive the benefits of digitizing the stall by receiving accounts receivable payments three times faster. Because in the application there is a reminder feature to the user’s business cash flow.

“Our mission is to support the owners of these stalls with technology so they can manage their business efficiently,” Abhinay said.

East Ventures Co-founder and Managing Partner Willson Weather said, after the launch of BukuWarung, transaction growth and application usage were fast. According to him, this makes BukuWarung one of the main players in the application industry for providing digital MSME solutions.

“MSMEs are the backbone of Indonesia’s economy. We believe the next wave of innovative startups will emerge from efforts to encourage digitization in the MSME segment. Therefore, we don’t need a short time to decide to become a BukuWarung partner,” Wilson said.

Golden Gate Ventures’ Managing Partner Vinnie Lauria added, the business service provider platform offered by BukuWarung will accelerate the evolution of Indonesia’s digital economy. “BukuWarung’s financial solutions have the potential to help 60 million stalls grow and grow their businesses,” Vinnie said.

BukuWarung Also Provides Features to Support Social Distancing during Pandemic

The owners of these stalls cannot monitor their cash flow and debt and receivables to customers and suppliers. BukuWarung’s mission is to support the owners of these stalls with technology so that they can manage their business efficiently.

Kasbon covers 80% of their business. This is the reason BukuWarung focuses on digital bookkeeping products.

“We will also launch a feature that can be used by stall owners to send to their customers, payment links with digital wallets and other methods. This is our effort to help them reduce direct contact amid the threat of the Covid-19 outbreak,” the Co-founder, Chinmay Chauhan, added.

Chinmay Chauhan and Abhinay Peddisetty founded BukuWarung last year while the two still worked together at Carousell.

Lunasbos founder Adjie Purbojati has also joined BukuWarung as a founding team member to accelerate the company’s growth. Lunasbos is a two-way financial recording application that is one of the main players in the accounting service industry for MSMEs in Indonesia.