BukuWarung is a fintech startup from Indonesia that is dedicated to helping the country’s small and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs) succeed. Recently, the company announced a major milestone, closing a $60M Series A round led by Valar Ventures and Goodwater Capital.
Through its innovative platform, BukuWarung provides a wide range of services to help MSMEs save time and money, optimize their finances, and increase their sales.
This article discusses the company’s mission, product offerings, and future plans.
Overview of BukuWarung
BukuWarung is a fintech company based in Indonesia that helps micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) optimize their operations by providing them access to various financial services. In addition, the company aims to make life easier for MSMEs by helping them manage their finances and facilitate access to capital. Recently, BukuWarung announced a $60M Series A funding round led by Valar Ventures and Goodwater Capital and investors such as Omidyar Network and Y Combinator.
The company’s mission is to provide easy-to-use digital tools for Indonesian MSMEs to help them increase the efficiency of their businesses so that they can unlock the economic growth potential of Indonesia’s MSMEs. BukuWarung has developed its software platform which offers an accounting system, an invoicing system, an analytics dashboard, and a marketplace for businesses to connect with customers. Additionally, the platform includes various features such as cash flow management tools, loan products tailored for MSMEs’ financial needs, payroll capabilities including tax filing support, automated backups of important financial data using cloud computing technology and more.
BukuWarung is looking forward to enabling more efficient business operations among Indonesian MSMEs with the help of its innovative digital platform. By expanding its services nationwide in Indonesia and utilizing capital infusion from Valar Ventures and Goodwater Capital’s investment round in early 2021, BukuWarung seeks to become the go-to fintech platform for Indonesian MSMEs needing efficient management solutions designed specifically for them.
Mission of BukuWarung
BukuWarung is a tech-enabled digital platform for Indonesian micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). Founded in 2018 by co-founders Pablo Sach, Muhammad Fadhil Syazwan, and Salman Jafri, BukuWarung has become Indonesia’s number one MSME financial platform.
The company is on a mission to enable Indonesian MSMEs to receive access to growth opportunities that have previously remained out of their reach. According to Fadhil Syazwan, CEO and co-founder of BukuWarung, “We want all our users across Indonesia be able to take advantage of financial products and services that they were previously deprived of without having any kind of undue restrictions or obstacles because of any kind of socio-economic hindrances.”
BukuWarung helps small business owners save time to focus on growing their businesses by allowing them to do bookkeeping faster using its mobile app. The company also provides small business owners access to credit lines and better payment terms from buyers through its integrated payment gateway. As well as providing many fintech services such as lending, merchant payments processing and invoicing for MSMEs across Indonesia to have ease and convenience regarding financial operations. Overall these tools help create efficiencies so that MSMEs may focus on expansion instead allowing them more time for developing strategies for increased profits.
BukuWarung, a fintech for Indonesian MSMEs, scores $60M Series A led by Valar and Goodwater
BukuWarung, a fintech company for Indonesian MSMEs, recently announced that it had secured a $60 million Series A funding round led by Valar and Goodwater.
This impressive investment round reflects the innovative vision of BukuWarung and its mission to help Indonesian MSMEs achieve financial stability and success.
This article will explore the details of the investment round, including why the investors choose to fund BukuWarung.
Overview of the Series A funding
BukuWarung, a fintech startup focusing on helping Indonesian micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), recently closed a Series A funding round of $60 million. Valar Ventures, Goodwater Capital and GGV Capital led this impressive Series A. This occurred shortly after
BukuWarung achieved unicorn status when it raised $19 million in just five months in 2020.
Series A funding is the pivotal stage for any startup as it is when the company’s business model and its potential for success will be tested during this financing round. It bridges the gap between a seed round and larger follow-on investments such as those at series B or C level financing rounds. During this phase, venture capital investors will identify the enterprise tech companies they believe are most likely to succeed through operational demos, customer trials and market feedback to determine which companies they will invest in.
In addition to Valar Ventures, Goodwater Capital and GGV Capital, prominent angel investors such as Impala VC; Justin Kan (Atrium LTS); Richard Chung (Caffeinated Capital) also participated in this investment round. This infusion of capital is BukuWarung’s first institutional investment since it won seed funding from Sequoia Capital India’s Surge accelerator program last year. The goal here is for BukuWarung to use this new investment infusion to further expand its services throughout Indonesia by improving its user experience, technology and product suite — which all help benefit MSME businesses who are trying to grow their businesses through digital channels by streamlining their activities within core areas:
- Operation management
- Accounting
- Finance & distribution tools
- Payments solutions including payroll
- Micro-loans & digital marketing for MSMEs customers
Investors and their roles
BukuWarung, a Jakarta-based fintech focused on helping Indonesian MSMEs, announced that they had raised $60M in a Series A round of funding. Valar Ventures and Goodwater Capital led this round of funding. Alongside Valar Ventures and Goodwater Capital, returning investors included Sequoia India, Y Combinator Continuity Fund, Wavemaker Partners, GREE Ventures and Breega Capital.
Valar Ventures brings the most for BukuWarung’s Series A round. They will assume the role of the lead investor with a large capital commitment and provide strategic guidance on Bukuwarung’s product road map. In addition, Goodwater Capital will assume more advisory roles in these investments, such as consulting on corporate governance administration.
The participation of these two primary investors shows a major market interest in promoting Indonesian MSMEs access to financial services through innovative fintech solutions such as Bukuwarung’s offerings. Furthermore, the infusion of such large capital commitments and new perspectives offered by Valar and Goodwater strengthens BukuWarung’s mission of leveraging technology to help empower local business owners throughout Indonesia.
Impact of the Funding
The recent $60M Series A led by Valar and Goodwater for the Indonesian fintech BukuWarung is an exciting development for the Indonesian MSMEs space. With the influx of capital, BukuWarung is well-positioned to make a long-term, positive impact on these businesses.
Let’s examine the impact of the new funding and how it will help the MSMEs in Indonesia.
Expansion of BukuWarung’s services
The successful Series A fundraising round of $60 million for BukuWarung, a fintech company for Indonesian MSMEs, led by Valar Ventures and Goodwater Capital, is a major step forward for the company. This additional infusion of capital will allow BukuWarung to expand its services, which the company offers directly and through partner organizations.
With the new funds, BukuWarung is looking to support more MSMEs in evaluating their creditworthiness, improving access to digital payments including cashless payments and providing additional financial products to small business owners in Indonesia.
With increased resources, BukuWarung can now focus on projects previously out of reach due to limited resources needed to develop them. These include further expanding its customer base beyond its current online presence, broader rollout of community cash agents across Indonesia with more user-friendly service offerings, and improved customer experience through mobile platforms such as WhatsApp Business solution.
In addition to strengthening the existing services it offers such as payroll operations and lending softwares used by banks and financial institutions in Indonesia, BukuWarung’s technology will also be harnessed to tackle global challenges outside the country’s borders. It has already started engaging with partners from countries like Kenya and Cambodia where progress towards digitalization has been slower than other parts of the world.
The scale up planned by BukuWarung on account of this recent funding can bring about far-reaching positive changes not just for Indonesian MSMEs but also by setting an example for other fintech firms in Southeast Asia striving towards a common goal of creating innovative solutions that bring financial inclusion globally.
Impact on Indonesian MSMEs
The recent Series A funding round of $60M led by Valar and Goodwater for BukuWarung, a fintech company facilitating financial services such as billing and payments for micro, small and medium enterprises in Indonesia, will have a tremendous impact on Indonesian MSMEs that are estimated to make up 97% of the total number of businesses in the country. This influx of capital enables BukuWarung to expand its suite of services to empower more underserved businesses, helping them grow without putting extra burden on their shoulders.
The funds will support BukuWarung’s mission to help Indonesian MSMEs by improving access to working capital, providing training programs with business incubators from leading regional universities such as STIE Malangkucecwara and Universitas Indonesia as well as enhancing last-mile banking infrastructure with rural banks across Java Island and beyond. When these features are combined, it promises increased financial inclusion for MSMEs and helps them increase transparency and accountability for their operations. This additional visibility into their business operations result in faster decision making which can lead to improved scalability down the line.
Moreover, a major element of the funding round is strengthening digital connectivity across Indonesia, allowing remote areas access to advanced technology solutions that wouldn’t otherwise be available. This is crucial given that only 30% percent of around 259 million people currently have internet access. The improved IT infrastructure supported by this funding allows millions more people to be connected with world class digital products & services that can help further foster economic development and ultimately lead towards prosperity within Indonesia’s MSME ecosystems.
Conclusion
BukuWarung is a fintech startup that offers affordable, technology-driven financial solutions to Indonesian Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). The company has developed a SaaS platform and mobile app that allows MSMEs to automate their business operations and activities by tracking cash flow, sales, customer management, payroll headcount, personal taxes and more. In addition to the software automated services they offer, BukuWarung also provides financial services such as access to external capital raising possibilities.
The startup is on a mission to help unlock economic opportunities for Indonesia’s MSMEs by providing them with an efficient technological solution at their fingertips. Businesses can accelerate their growth rate not just through the software automation solutions within their platform but facility loan options for businesses who need additional financing to afford higher prices for purchasing in bulk. Having 8 million active users across 34 provinces in Indonesia, BukuWarung has been recognized as one of the prominent players in Indonesia’s fintech sector leading up to its recently closed $60M Series A investment led by Valar Ventures & Goodwater Capital.
As they continue their mission of empowering Indonesian MSMEs with technology-driven solutions, we look forward to seeing how this move will further facilitate economic development opportunities among Indonesian businesses within an already hyper-competitive fintech market.
Future outlook of BukuWarung
BukuWarung has seen rapid growth over the last two years, and there’s no sign of it decelerating shortly. Their mission to help Indonesian micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) has struck a chord with investors and customers alike—the demand for digital solutions to serve MSMEs is high, proving that businesses like BukuWarung have a strong potential for continued success.
With their newly-secured funding from Valar Ventures and Goodwater Capital and additional backers like DST Global and SoftBank Ventures Asia, BukuWarung is poised to continue its mission of supporting Indonesian MSMEs by helping them navigate their finances in the digital age. This includes the expansion into new areas such as offering Islamic banking services, risk management strategies, financial literacy programs to help MSMEs understand their options more deeply, and updating Indonesia’s tax infrastructure to make it easier for MSME owners to comply with local regulations.
Beyond working with MSMEs in Indonesia alone, Bukuwarung plans on expanding into different countries in Southeast Asia. By collaborating extensively with fintech partners in each country and offering customized solutions according to regional needs—such as providing electronic money services or access to credit facilities—Bukuwarung hopes they can further support SMEs’ ability to expand operations sustainably and efficiently manage finances online.
By combining fintech innovation with a deep understanding of Indonesian culture and trends, BukuWarong is well on its way towards securing itself a leading spot in Southeast Asian finance–and helping local businesses take advantage of tech-driven products along the way.
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