A big dream for small businesses

• 500-backed financial management platform BukuKas raised a US$10 million Series A, bringing the startup’s total funding raised so far to US$22 million.
• According to an article, BukuKas will use the Series A on user acquisition, its engineering and product teams in Jakarta and Bangalore, and to introduce new services for merchants.
• The idea for BukuKas was born out of the experience of co-founders Krishnan Menon and Lorenzo Peracchione. Krishnan realized that no products were catering to the 56 million small businesses in Indonesia through his previous startup. At the same time, Lorenzo recalled his father’s struggles running his own small business.

• BukuKas was launched in December 2019 as a digital bookkeeping app, helping small and medium enterprises (SMEs) digitize their businesses.
• The platform currently offers digital ledger features, payment reminders through WhatsApp, automatically generates invoices, and an inventory management module, with plans to add digital payments this month.
• In September 2020, BukuKas acquired the digital ledger app Catatan Keuangan Harian, which has 300,000 monthly active users, to expand its market share in Indonesia.
• As of November 2020, BukuKas has registered 3.5 million small merchants and retailers on its platform and recorded 1.8 million monthly active users. During that month, the platform also recorded US$17.4 billion worth of transactions on an annualized basis.
• In 2021, the startup plans to introduce more features to help businesses sell online, including tools for online storefronts, a promotions engine, and social sharing. “With COVID-19, SMEs are rushing to get digitized, but they lack the right mobile-first tools to sell online as well as to manage their business,” Krishnan shared.
• The startup’s ultimate goal? To launch an SME-focused digital bank.
• Congratulations to the BukuKas team!

An IPO in the cards

• Thanks to a significant growth in 2020, 500-backed startup Bukalapak is considering going public.
• “An initial public offering is an option to get funds and indeed, technology companies at certain times want an IPO. We are open to that option and are now preparing for it,” said Bukalapak CEO Rachmat Kaimuddin in a virtual press conference on Monday. He added that his team has been focusing on strengthening the capital base and infrastructure since last year.

• Citing the startup’s performance in 2020, Rachmat is optimistic about Bukalapak’s growth and further development in 2021.
• The startup recorded a 200% increase in gross merchandise value (GMV) during the 2018–2020 period. Currently, Bukalapak has 100 million users and 7 million partners.
• In 2021, Bukalapak’s focus will be on talent, business growth, and capital. On the business side, the company plans to increase merchants’ numbers, both in the customer-to-customer (C2C) and business-to-customer (B2C) segments.
• Bukalapak recently migrated its service to the cloud, following a US$100 million investment from Microsoft in November 2020. It will leverage Microsoft’s expertise in building a resilient cloud infrastructure to support Bukalapak’s services for more than 12 million micro, small, and medium enterprises, and 100 million customers. Microsoft will also provide digital skills training for Bukalapak employees and their merchants.

A leap in logistics

• Tech in Asia recently interviewed founder and CEO Arne Jeroschewski of 500-backed Parcel Perform.

• Parcel Perform is a global carrier-independent delivery experience platform for e-commerce merchants and their end-customers, covering more than 600 logistics carriers worldwide.
• From his experience working in a logistics company, he saw that many e-commerce companies faced various problems that he couldn’t help solve. They subscribed to various logistics providers with different integrations and service issues.
• So, Parcel Perform was born. “They can work with as many logistics companies as they like while at the same time delivering a great experience for their end-customers,” he shared.
• On that startup’s plans, he said that the innovation of lockers where parcels can be dropped off is the most exciting one in logistics, and he is looking forward to rolling this out in Singapore.
• According to Arne, delivery times are most affected by parcels waiting to be picked up. “I think there are a lot of things we can do with data and other technologies like machine learning to make those processes a lot more efficient,” he said.
• How will e-commerce logistics look like ten years from now? “Most of the deliveries should happen actually in the same day, in just a few hours,” he shared, “I think that is something we can look forward to.”
• Watch the full interview here.

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500 Startups is a venture capital firm on a mission to discover and back the world’s most talented entrepreneurs, help them create successful companies at scale, and build thriving global ecosystems. In Southeast Asia, 500 Startups invests through the pioneering 500 Southeast Asia family of funds. The 500 Southeast Asia funds have backed over 240 companies across multiple sectors from internet to consumer to deep technology. It continues to connect founders with capital, expertise and powerful regional and global networks to help them succeed.

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