A busy bee

• 500-backed BukuKas, a startup focused on digitizing Indonesia’s small businesses, has raised US$50 million in Series B funding. This news comes after its US$10 million Series A funding four months ago.
• The startup will use its Series B to hire for its engineering and product teams in Jakarta and Bangalore, and launch new services for merchants.
• According to the startup, the platform has signed up about 6.3 million businesses so far. It now has a total of 3 million monthly active users. It also said its annualized bookkeeping transaction volume is US$25.9 billion.
• The startup has been busy working towards serving 20 million SMEs by the end of 2022. This year, it launched BukuKasPay for business owners to pay suppliers online or accept digital payments.
• In September 2020, it acquired a digital ledger app. It then launched an e-commerce platform called Tokko that enables MSMEs to set up online shops. About 1.3 million merchants have created shops since its release six months ago.
• Read the full story on TechCrunch here.

The price is right

• 500-backed price comparison and product aggregating platform iPrice Group announced it has raised US$1.5 million in funding from South Korean foodtech company Woowa Brothers. Its last funding round was a US$10 million Series B in March 2020.
• According to its media release, the startup aims to bring a greater level of transparency, convenience, and trust to consumers in SEA. Instead of going through multiple marketplaces, users can access six billion offers from more than two million sellers on a single platform.
• “Consumers increasingly expect shopping experiences embedded in their phones — be it in various apps or even in the native camera apps for visual shopping. We, therefore, built a product to bring e-commerce to those places, becoming the prime partner for leading platforms and super apps in the region,” iPrice Group CEO Paul Brown-Kenyon said.
• Read the full story on e27 here.

Double feature

• Two 500-backed startups have come together in a partnership — online marketplace Bukalapak and fintech platform Kredivo.
• Together, they launched Bukalapak Paylater, a ‘buy now, pay later’ solution with 0% interest rate exclusively for Bukalapak users.
• This collaboration marks a new milestone for both startups. This is the first such feature for Bukalapak, while it is Kredivo’s first time providing a white label ‘pay later’ service to a partner.
• Bukalapak users qualify for a credit limit of up to ~US$34 to shop at Bukalapak.
• Read more about the partnership here.

Missed out the last Daily Markup? Go here to check it out.

You can also find us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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.

This post is intended solely for general informational or educational purposes only. 500 Startups Management Company, L.L.C. and its affiliates (collectively “500 Startups”) makes no representation as to the accuracy or information in this post and while reasonable steps have been taken to ensure that the information herein is accurate and up-to-date, no liability can be accepted for any error or omissions. All third party links in this post have not been independently verified by 500 Startups and the inclusion of such links should not be interpreted as an endorsement or confirmation of the content within. Information about portfolio companies’ markets, competitors, performance, and fundraising has been provided by those companies’ founders and has not been independently verified. Under no circumstances should any content in this post be construed as investment, legal, tax or accounting advice by 500 Startups, or an offer to provide any investment advisory service with regard to securities by 500 Startups. No content or information in this post should be construed as an offer to sell or solicitation of interest to purchase any securities advised by 500 Startups. Prospective investors considering an investment into any 500 Startups fund should not consider or construe this content as fund marketing material. The views expressed herein are as at the date of this post and are subject to change without notice. One or more 500 Startups fund may have a financial interest in one or more of the companies discussed.