Startup BukuWarung Receives 3 Times Funding This Year

A financial technology (fintech) startup that focuses on digitizing warungs, BukuWarung noted that gross transactions on the platform grew 100 times. The company also received three times the total funding of tens of millions of US dollars since the beginning of the year.

BukuWarung Co-Founder Chinmay Chauhan claims that his company helps Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) accelerate their return on capital. At least three times faster. Currently, BukuWarung has attracted more than 1.2 million sales partners in Indonesia.

Gross transactions amounted to billions of US dollars, or a 100-fold growth since the start of the year. “Our rapid growth is driven by product strategies and capital efficiency,” said Chauhan, quoted in a press release, Tuesday (29/9). He said the main challenge for micro-entrepreneurs is a reliance on manual accounting processes and repayments.

BukuWarung estimates that less than 10% use digital devices. While BukuWarung provides MSME bookkeeping processing services, including credit, expenses, and sales. Besides, it presents business reports. With the additional capital, BukuWarung plans to develop the technology.

In addition, they’re also building several financial services that are integrated with payment, credit and saving products. Therefore, BukuWarung collaborates with major banks and payment fintech such as OVO and DANA.

Then the company launched a savings and loan pilot product. “The initial results are very promising and on the way to monetization,” said Book Co-Founder Abhinay Peddisetty.

In particular, when the Rp. 600 trillion in the MSME ecosystem was still in the form of cash. This is why a comprehensive solution for all merchants, for cash and credit management needs throughout the value chain is the key.

Getting Fund Injection from Many Investors

Meanwhile, the fresh funds of tens of millions of US dollars obtained by BukuWarung were obtained from three funding rounds. Investors involved include Partners of DST Global, GMO Venture Partners, Soma Capital, HOF Capital, VentureSouq. Then Quona Capital, East Ventures, AC Ventures, Golden Gate Ventures, Tanglin Venture Partners, and Michael Sampoerna.

In addition, there were several individual investors (angel investors) who participated. They include William Hockey (Plaid), Justin Mateen (Tinder), Rahul Vohra (Superhuman), Scott Belsky (CPO Adobe).

Then Josh Buckley, Manik Gupta (ex-CPO Uber), Sriram Krishnan (Spotify), Harry Stebbings (20VC), Nancy Xiao (Bond Capital), Alison Barr Allen (Fast), WhatsApp, Square, and Airbnb. The startup is also supported by angel investors from several companies such as Grab, Gojek, Flipkart, PayPal, Xendit and Mastercard.

BukuWarung also recently graduated from the acceleration program from the US, Y-Combinator. Plaid Co-Founder William Hockey said, BukuWarung has a strong team and is able to build digital fintech infrastructure for micro-businesses in Indonesia. “I believe that the experience the team has can drive business progress,” he said.

Series-A Funding is Led by East Ventures

Last April, BukuWarung, a startup provider of bookkeeping applications for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), received early-stage funding led by East Ventures.

BukuWarung co-founder Abhinay Peddisetty said the initial funding was planned to be used to expand the market. Currently, bookkeeping cash and credit transactions from BukuWarung can be enjoyed by 250 thousand MSMEs in 500 cities/regencies in Indonesia.

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

He is optimistic that BukuWarung’s expansion will be a success, because, in the first few months, BukuWarung achieved strong market growth. For the last two months, for example, BukuWarung noted, his application usage (engagement) grew by 500%.

The majority are in second and third-tier cities. In addition to expanding the market, BukuWarung also uses the funds for technology development. BukuWarung will also recruit new talents in the fields of engineering, product, design and partnerships.