Empowering with fintech

• Indonesia is home to over 4.5 million warungs — Indonesian for kiosks — and many of these small businesses are located in rural areas scattered across the archipelago. They often lack the digital accessibilities found in urban cities like Jakarta, preventing them from enjoying the flexibility of purchasing goods online.

• Dagangan, a 500-backed startup is bringing e-commerce to these areas. It acts as a distribution platform allowing end-users, retailers, and wholesalers in rural, third-tier Indonesian cities to make transactions efficiently.
• Through an app, users can group-buy products from Dagangan’s network of wholesalers and logistics service providers, which helps to cut the operational and logistical cost often found in conventional stock buying.

• Besides, Dagangan also empowers MSMEs with promotional support to distribute their products to other areas within their reach.
• Dagangan’s services have been well-received during the pandemic crisis. Compared to the pre-pandemic period, Dagangan has grown more than 3x in a matter of months, covering more than 1,500 villages across Indonesia, with more than 10,000 active customers and agents.
• In regards to safety measures, Dagangan is working with the government to acquire crucial updates pertaining to the Covid-19 spread for its consumers. Likewise, it is also working with a number of health startups to supply medicine to these underserved communities.
• For more on Dagangan and how it’s empowering rural entrepreneurs through fintech, visit their website or LinkedIn page.

Bring the fans back

• 500-backed digital health company Prenetics, which provided Covid-19 testing kits for Premier League staff and players as well as the English Cricket Board, has a system in the works that will allow fans back to stadiums.

• According to Sky Sports, the Premier League is optimistic the system will allow for socially-distanced crowds to attend matches safely next season.
• “Currently with the Premier League and the ECB, health passports are being used to link an individual’s biometrics to a COVID test result — allowing players and support staff to access different areas.
• “There will definitely be a way forward where fans will be able to link their own test results to a health passport to give them access to a stadium,” the Hong-Kong-based company says.
• Founded in 2014, Prenetics is behind Project Screen, an initiative providing safe, accurate, and expedited coronavirus testing kits in Hong Kong.

Furnishing sustainability

• 500-backed Indonesia-based Fabelio, the furniture retailer that raised a Series C last month, is making sure its products are not only impactful to nearby communities, but also sustainable to the environment.
• They work with local crafters to ensure all furniture is made to the highest standards. In fact, 80% of Fabelio’s products are made in the Java region.

• In an industry infamous for leaving carbon footprints, Fabelio ensures to only work with suppliers who comply with the Indonesian Legal Wood Certification, a system and procedure designed to pursue the legal verification for procured wood in the country.
• Starting this year, Fabelio is going eco-conscious, by only using recyclable packaging for every product.
• Founded in 2015, Fabelio supplies local and imported furniture to the Indonesian market and currently has 20 showrooms across Jakarta and Bandung. It also offers B2B interior design consultation services for offices and corporations.

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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