Logistics Vehicle Management Platform “McEasy” Bags Seed Funding from East Ventures

SaaS startup for logistics vehicle management and tracking McEasy announced a $1.5 million (approximately IDR 22 billion) seed funding from East Ventures. The funds will be used to build logistics technology, recruit marketing and sales teams to reach more users.

“Smart tracking systems are not new in the automotive and industrial world, but we know how to integrate existing hardware, from sensors to GPS, with our platform to be the right solution. With a business plan previously designed, we believe that funds from investors will drive the company’s growth exponentially,” McEasy’s Co-Founder, Raymond Sutjiono said in an official statement, Tuesday (14/9).

East Ventures’ partner Melisa Irene said the application of technology solutions to drive increased asset management efficiency and achieve customer satisfaction is currently the main key in winning the competition in the logistics industry.

“McEasy has succeeded in providing solutions and products that are suitable for various players in the Indonesian logistics industry to help them identify the potential of the logistics market that is currently developing until the post-pandemic. We are delighted to welcome McEasy to the East Ventures ecosystem,” she said.

Industry growth momentum

This startup was founded in 2017 by Raymond Sutjiono and Hendrik Ekowaluyo. Both have experience working at Ford. Hendrik is in structural design and in-car program management, while Raymond is an expert in engine electronics, system control, and vehicle data handling.

Both pioneered McEasy as a digitalization catalyst in the B2B logistics and transportation industry. To date, there are still several challenges clouding the logistics transportation management in Indonesia. Among them, the limited integration from one party to another, even though they are still in the same supply chain.

Moreover, business operational processes tend to rely on manual methods with complicated administration, therefore, the digitization process is yet to run smoothly; the same goes with automation and optimization systems to simplify logistics operations.

According to the Indonesian Logistics and Forwarders Association (ALFI), Indonesia’s logistics industry business growth potential from year to year is around 40 trillion Rupiah ($2.8 billion). Based on Redseer’s analysis, the industry has seen up to 100% growth during the pandemic.

Provided solutions

McEasy provides two solutions, Vehicle Smart Management System (VSMS) and Transportation Management System (TMS) & Smart Driver Apps. VSMS is a smart tracker-based digital solution to assist logistics operations and real-time tracking of vehicle locations.

Meanwhile, TMS is a SaaS for integrated planning, implementation, monitoring, and optimization of freight forwarding processes. Through integration in Smart Driver Apps, McEasy customers can track their vehicle position and all operational costs transparently, without the hassle of checking them manually.

Both of these solutions is available for logistics business players, from manufacturing & distribution companies to large brand companies that already have their own fleet or are integrated with logistics service providers.

McEasy’s Co-Founder, Hendrik Ekowaluyo added that the main strength of its service lies in its flexible platform, which is a solution to every customer’s needs. Different from other software providers, they will usually explore the client’s main problem, then explain how to use elements on our platform to solve the problem.

“For example, logistics company A has problem X, next, we will look for the most optimal settings on the platform and guide the client using those settings as a solution. In terms of scalability, this business concept is much more sustainable because we just have to explore the features in the platform without having to create different software every time,” he said.

McEasy uses a subscription-based business model and provides solutions that can be tailored to the scale of the customer’s business, such as 3PL, 4PL, distributor, or brand owner. To date, the areas covered by McEasy’s digital solutions include Java, Bali, Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi.

Its customer portfolio covers various industries and business sizes, for example MGM Bosco for the cold-chain sector, Rosalia Indah Group for the public transportation sector, as well as RPX and FeDex Indonesia for the last-mile logistics sector in Indonesia.

Since the pandemic, McEasy’s business has also been boosted thanks to digital transformation in the logistics industry. The number of its subscribers has grown 10 times. The company targets in the last quarter of this year to double the total number of vehicles integrated with the system, as well as assist in digitizing the transportation system for corporate customers.

Meanwhile, in the following year, the company will increase its target to achieve four times minimum growth for 2021. McEasy’s ambition is to create an integrated ecosystem that makes it easier for stakeholders to optimize all logistics and supply chain processes.

Logistics startup funding trend

In supporting the digital economy, the logistics industry still has a lot of friction in its business processes. This opportunity encourages startup players to jump in which requires a lot of investment in developing their technology.

Since 2019 to July 2021, the DailySocial research team recorded around 16 announced funding transactions involving technology-based logistics companies. This investment managed to record a total fund value of $586 million. There are at least 4 logistics startups that have a valuation above $100 million, including SiCepat, Waresix, Shipper, and GudangAda.

Company	Round	Year
ASSA (induk AnterAja)	Convertible Bond	2021
Andalin	Series A	2021
Deliveree	Series A	2017
Finfleet	Series A	2019
GudangAda	Series A Series B	2020 2021
Kargo Technologies	Seed Funding Series A	2019 2020
Logisly	Series A	2020
Pakde	Seed Funding	2018
Ritase	Series A	2019
Shipper	Seed Funding Series A Series B	2019 2020 2021
SiCepat	Series B	2021
Triplogic	Seed Funding	2019
Waresix	Seed Funding Pre-Series A Series A Series A+ Series B	2018 2018 2019 2020 2020
Webtrace	Seed Funding	2020

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

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MNC Vision Pours 570 Billion Rupiah Funding to Migo, Planning for Collaboration

MNC Vision Networks (IDX: IPTV), a subsidiary of MNC Group which oversees several OTT business units, announced its investment in Migo Indonesia worth of $40 million or equivalent to 570 billion Rupiah. The funds will be used to increase service coverage with a target of 100 million users by 2022.

This funding continues Migo’s acquisition in 2020 in the series B round. The amount is not stated, a series of venture capitalists and angel investors are involved, including Temasek, Provident Capital, Ray Zage (Commissioner of Gojek and Lippo Karawaci), Steve Chen (Co-founder & ex -CTO Youtube), and Pandu Sjahrir.

Compared to other streaming video services, Migo’s technology is quite unique in the form of online to offline (O2O) videos-to-go which allows users to watch movies offline without buffering. Content distribution is done through Wargo (Warung Migo) or Migo Download Stations (MDS). Users only need to go to the partner grocery store location to download the content to be played offline on the application.

Content distribution mechanism on Migo app / Migo

In particular, Migo’s target market is the mass market segment with data issues and without sufficient connectivity at home. Migo started its jouney in Indonesia since March 2020, before finally launching in the global market in June 2020 with a paid model. Currently, the service (the presence of partners) only covers area around Jakarta and Bekasi.

Furthermore, with the funds, Migo also targeting to provide MDS points in 10 thousand new locations in Java.

“Migo uniquely and exclusively innovates for 3 billion consumers in emerging markets. As the largest country in Southeast Asia, Indonesia is home to more than 200 million under-innovated people. These individuals and families basically want to fully participate in the digital age, and Migo can make that happen,” Migo’s Founder & CEO, Barrett Comiskey said.

Partnership with MNC

The IPTV corporate action will be followed by a series of strategic collaborations, continuing the integration of Vision+ in the Migo application which has been carried out since June 2021. The goal is to bring an OTT Vision+ viewing experience to offline customers. With the additional capital, Migo is quite optimistic about setting a target of 20 million monthly paid subscribers for the Vision+ service on Migo by 2025. Migo’s subscription fee iranging from Rp15 thousand per month.

“Working with MNC Group, which provides enormous domestic resources and experience, to accelerate Migo’s scale and increase the impact of Migo on society. MNC Vision Networks is an excellent partner while simultaneously expanding our network nationally in order to realize our mission We aim to change the digital life of Indonesians every day,” Barrett added.

In addition, the agreement also includes the appointment of the President Director of MNC Vision Networks Ade Tjendra and the Marketing Head of the President Director of MNC Vision Networks Clarissa Tanoesoedibjo as the Board of Commissioners of Migo Indonesia.

“Supported by MVN’s superior content and Migo’s rapidly growing reach, we aim to reach tens of millions of people without access to OTT services, or are limited by data connection. In addition, we believe that this service is to change people’s lives because they will have better access to entertainment and educational content,” MNC Vision Networks’ President Director, Ade Tjendra said.

MNC Group OTT Business

This year, MNC Vision Networks has announced several important plans. One that is quite significant is the plan to go public on the United States stock exchange for its subsidiary Asia Vision Networks (AVN) or known for its application product Vision+. The corporate action began with the signing of a merger agreement with a SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company), Malacca Straits Acquisition Company (NASDAQ: MLAC), .

In addition to OTT (over the top) via video streaming applications, AVN also oversees MNC Play as a pay TV and broadband service operator.

MNC’s strenght is evident in the content diversification provided. Moreover, they have television broadcast assets that dominate the national rating. The VOD application presented also bridges access to these shows, while providing post-show replay options. Migo’s presence is certainly a good bridge to reach new people – especially to convert television viewers to VOD.

According to data presented in the disclosure early this year, Vision+ currently has 5.6 million subscribers, and 1.6 million of them are paid subscribers. Meanwhile, its competitors, according to Media Partners Asia data, until early this year Disney+ Hotstar already had 2.5 million paid subscribers in Indonesia, Viu had 1.5 million subscribers, and Vidio had 1.1 million subscribers. While Netflix has 800 thousand.

Meanwhile, according to their popularity (accessed today [14/9] via the analytics service AppBrain), the following is a list of the most popular VOD applications on the Android platform:

Google Play Rank (Entertainment)	Application
1	WeTV
2	Vidio
7	iQIYI
8	Mola TV
12	Viu
14	RCTI+
15	Netflix
16	Iflix
20	Disney+ Hotstar
27	Vision+
37	MAXstream

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Pluang Announces 499 Billion Rupiah Follow-on Funding

Pluang today (13/9) announced that it has secured further funding of $35 million or equivalent to 499.3 billion Rupiah. This investment round was led by Square Peg with the involvement of SIG, UOB Venture Management, and several previous investors including Go-Ventures and Openspace Ventures.

This acquisition continues the pre-Series B investment received in March 2021 of $20 million. In total, the company has posted $55 million in this year’s round. Fresh funds will be focused on accelerating the launch of new products to meet the investment needs of users. In addition, strengthening the internal team will also be the next focus.

Investment diversification for consumers

Starting with providing access to gold investments, Pluang has expanded to several other instruments on its platform, including stocks, mutual funds, and cryptocurrencies. This makes them one of the most comprehensive investment applications and makes it easy for users to diversify assets in one dashboard.

Pluang allows its users to save and invest starting from IDR 10,000, this will be an interesting opportunity to open new markets, especially for young generations who are still learning to invest.

The company has typical collaboration strategy between digital players. In order to present a variety of investment instruments, they cooperate with several entities. In terms of crypto, Pluang is working with Zipmex and Tokocrypto to process transactions through the application backend. Even for service distribution, Pluang is currently integrated in several consumer applications, such as Gojek, Dana, and Bukalapak.

Wealthtech gets more attractive

Founded in 2019 by Claudia Kolonas and Richard Chua, Pluang has reached around 3 million registered users. The potential is still huge, as to the first half of 2021, only 2% of the total productive age population in Indonesia has access to investment products in the capital market – a total of 4.5 million people. For crypto investors alone has higher number, there are currently more than 6.5 million people.

“We are very fortunate to contue adding to our investment in Pluang with each funding series, making Pluang one of our main portfolios. We are always amazed by the product innovation, growth of Pluang’s business and the best-in-class economy unit. We look forward to continuing to work closely with the team. Prosperity in the years to come,” Go-Ventures’ Partner, Aditya Kamath said.

During the year, several investment applications received equity funding from investors. Aside from Pluang, there are Bibit, Ajaib, and FUNDtastic wwith follow on funding round. This is a separate validation regarding the market potential validity worked on by players in the vertical.

Application	Google Play Rank (Finance)	Latest Fund
Ajaib	20	Seri A, $90 juta
Bibit	16	Pre-Series B, $65 juta
Stockbit	–	Series C, $35 juta
Pluang	26	Pre-Series B, $55 juta
FUNDtastic	–	Series A, $7,7 juta
Bareksa	193	Series B

Apart from those mentioned above, there are many applications users can use to make investments, such as Tanamduit, Raiz Invest, E-mas, Lakuemas, Treasury, Tamasia, Indogold, Tokocrypto, Indodax, Luno, Pintu, etc.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Kedaireka Polatform Provides Funding and Training to 14 Bangkit 2021 Incubation Projects

The Bangkit 2021 career development program officially announced 15 selected teams offering the best ideas. The 15 teams will receive $5,000 funding from Google or Rp71 million each to support product development to market in the fields of health to the environment.

Bangkit is a career development program initiated by Google with the Ministry of Education and Culture, Gojek, Tokopedia, and Traveloka. In the first batch of the Kampus Merdeka, the Bangkit 2021 program has graduated 2,250 participants.

Google Indonesia’s Product Marketing Manager, Dora Songco said to DailySocial that all participants were required to work on a group final project with one of the strategic topics from the National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) and the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence.

Furthermore, as many as 483 teams had to complete a final project from the specified theme involving three Bangkit curricula, machine learning, cloud computing, and Android mobile development. Dora said that the final project was designed to explore various problems in Indonesia, from general themes of education, economic defense, health services, to specifically discussing waste management.

“The selected participants have gone through the selection results by a panel of expert judges from academia, technology, and business. Currently, 15 teams are ready to realize three-month achievements and implement projects as planned. Funding support can later help turn the project into a sustainable business initiative,” Dora said.

Although it has not been officially announced, his team plans to continue the second batch program next year with a similar activity structure, in which there are three learning paths that are the same and continue to run as part of the Merdeka Campus.

“We have received feedback from various parties regarding Bangkit, and we have been working to improve this program over the past few months. Soon, the next program will be officially announced at the Google for Indonesia event. With more information and recommendations about the Bangkit program and Merdeka Campus, next year this program will target around 3,000 students,” he said.

Kedaireka channels matching fund

In additional, this program selected other participants to receive additional funding or matching funds of Rp855,712,788 from Kedaireka. As a result, 14 incubation projects were selected to receive matching funds, including Adil, Artesia, Baca, Bacara, Buangin, Citizen, Jagawana, Naratik, Next Parking, Obuce, Phoodto, Q-Hope, Samapta, and Usahaq.

In genera note, Kedaireka is the official platform launched by the Directorate General of Higher Education, Research, and Technology in 2020. Through this platform, the government seeks to open up opportunities for synergy between universities and industrial commercialization. As for realizing this collaboration, 14 selected projects will be fostered by the Incubation and Entrepreneurship Lab at 12 Mitra Bangkit Campuses.

Platform Kedaireka / Ditjen DIktiristek — Kedaireka Platform / Ditjen DIktiristek

Kedairek’sa Matching Fund Coordinator, Endang Taryono said this funding could help participants to realize their incubation projects into finished products that are ready to compete in the market and open up sustainable business opportunities.

“We hope that matching funds can have a big impact on the Main Performance Indicators (KPI) of universities and solutions for the industrial sector to be more productive and advanced,” Endang said in his official statement.

Some of the selected projects are the OBUCE telenutrition platform and the AI-based application Naratik. OBUCE was developed by eight students from Bogor Agricultural University, Jember University, and Brawijaya University. Meanwhile, Naratik was built by students from Dian Nuswantoro University, Diponegoro University, and the Telkom Purwokerto Institute of Technology.

OBUCE representative said that his team will develop more features, such as object detection of food, nutritional status assistant, to consulting with nutritionists. This funding is also planned to be used to obtain patent rights and realize finished products and launch them to the market.

Meanwhile, Naratik was developed to help classify the authenticity of batik and its motifs through AI technology. This application also provides special buying and selling features for batik by cooperating with MSME partners and home industries.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Hijup Maintains a Decade Growth, Fueling Its Three Main Business Pillars

After operating the business since 2011, the fashion commerce service Hijup claims to continue to experience positive business growth. Even though there were several obstacles during the pandemic, the company was able to survive and continue to present new innovations. Hijup’s Founder & CEO, Diajeng Lestari revealed to DailySocial that Hijup has currently developed three main pillars.

“Previously, Hijup only focused on the marketplace, Hijup now has a new revenue stream in the form of a social media agency and Hijup Growth Fund.”

To date, Hijup claims to have nearly 400 thousand registered users with a total of nearly 400 partners. Meanwhile, its social media followers also experienced positive growth up to 1.2 million. The company’s next target is to become the main goal of the Indonesian people for an ecosystem-based end-to-end solution for modest Muslim marketplaces.

“We believe our focus on transformation will put Hijup at a stronger position in the minds of the Indonesian people, both in terms of creative producers and the market,” Diajeng said.

Hijup Growth Fund

Hijup has also launched the Hijup Growth Fund. This is a business financing program up to a maximum of Rp100 billion, aimed at business players in the local Muslim and modest fashion industry. One of the reasons to generate this program is the trust from Hijup’s board of shareholders with their continuous support.

“Especially due to several innovations that we continue to present to develop business capital. Hijup Growth Fund is one of Hijup’s proud innovations,” Diajeng said.

In addition to capital for business scale-up, this program also provides direct assistance from Hijup in business, branding and marketing aspects. In the future, Hijup will also offer a repayment scheme through sales and loan profit sharing up to 0%. The funding scheme will be adjusted to the characteristics and conditions of each brand.

In order to participate in the program, you must first become a tenant and sell products on the Hijup website. The brand will further go through several stages before getting funded. For example, starting from the submission stage, verification, approval, disbursement, to the stage of the refund agreement.

Moslem fashion industry

According to a report by Thomson Reuters and DinarStandard in 2018, Muslim consumers spent around $270 billion on modest clothing in 2017. The report also projects 4.8 percent year-on-year growth for the sector and estimates that sales will reach $402 billion by 2024. .

Fashion brands have taken note of this growing trend, and many of them are starting to tap into this industry to catch up with the growing demand.

According to the Islamic Fashion & Design Council, Turkey still led the modest fashion consumption with more than $25 billion per year, followed by Iran, Indonesia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and then Pakistan.

The report also shows that food and beverage is the largest revenue sector for the halal market. According to a report from DinarStandard, Muslims have spent about $2.2 trillion on the halal and Islamic lifestyle sector, 10% of which is accredited to the modest fashion sector.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

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Sirclo Officially Announces 512 Billion Rupiah Additional Funding

After news circulated about an additional funding round, Sirclo today (10/9) officially announced the $36 million additional funding or equivalent to 512 billion Rupiah led by East Ventures and Saratoga. Another investor participated in this round is Traveloka.

In the official release, it is said that this funding will be used to develop the technological capabilities offered and to accelerate retail digitalization for various businesses in Indonesia. During the pandemic, the company claimed to gain momentum to improve its economic unit and was already at the profitability stage.

“With this funding, we plan to use the momentum of high consumer interest in shopping on e-commerce channels during the pandemic and beyond. Sirclo continues to adhere to its mission helping brands sell online through an omnichannel approach,” Sirclo’s Founder & CEO, Brian Marshal said.

Previously, this e-commerce enabler platform had developed the Sirclo Store SaaS solution with an omnichannel approach aimed at helping brands sell online through various channels at once, such as websites, marketplaces, and chat-based sales (chat commerce).

In addition, in a series of Online-to-Offline (O2O) initiatives, the platform which recently launched the #MerdekaJualanOnline program for the country’s national economic recovery program is also developing financial solutions aimed at supporting MSME players to compete with larger-scale retail players.

East Ventures’ Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Wilson Cuaca considered Sirclo as a classic example of a startup running a marathon. As an investor, East Ventures thought that Sirclo was a bit ahead of market-timing when it was founded in 2013. However, the founder’s consistent vision from the beginning has allowed Sirclo to survive and grow over the years.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the company’s business, Sirclo recorded the highest revenue in the company’s history, with a nominal value of hundreds of millions of dollars, and is approaching the profitable stage. We are very happy to be a part of their journey, and participate in another funding stage,” Willson continued.

Throughout the pandemic, Sirclo alone has recorded a 5x increase in transactions driven by changes in consumer behavior during the Covid-19 pandemic. Until this year, Sirclo has helped more than 100,000 brands to sell online, from the scale of individual entrepreneurs, MSMEs, to large companies.

E-commerce enabler performance in time of pandemic

Indonesia’s e-commerce industry has grown rapidly since the Covid-19 pandemic. Nearly half of Indonesia’s population uses digital technology for their daily needs, creating high potential for growth in this industry. The presence of e-commerce enabler services makes it easier for brand principals to enter the online industry. Through a single dashboard, they can manage the product presence in several online marketplace services at once.

In Indonesia, Sirclo is not solely trying to take on the role of an e-commerce enabler, there are several players who also competing to enliven this market. One of those is JetCommerce. Through its solution, they claim to have managed to record a whole 36% transactions increase in the fourth quarter of 2020 compared to the previous quarter, serving more than 750 thousand transactions on various marketplace platforms in early 2021. The company also has a rapidly growing business unit in China, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Among the existing players, a cloud-based e-commerce enabler solution provider from Singapore, Genie tried to stir the competition by expanding into the Indonesian market. The platform claims to have back-end regional integration with e-commerce website builders like Shopify and WooCommerce, reducing the hassle for merchants when they set up an online store.

The Digital Market Outlook report published by Statista showed that e-commerce users in Indonesia are predicted to grow 15% this year from a total of 138 million users in 2020, reaching 159 million users in 2021. Meanwhile, the industry’s revenue is predicted to increase by 26% reaching $38 million, from $30 million in 2020.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

From Social Commerce to Online Grocery, Pasarnow Scored 47 Billion Rupiah Seed Funding

Starting from a social commerce platform, startup Jamannow has established the online grocery service “Pasarnow”. This business model shifting (pivot) was welcomed by investors with the announcement of a seed funding of $3.3 million or equivalent to 47 billion Rupiah. This round was led by East Ventures with the participation of SMDV, Skystar Capital, Amand Ventures, Prasetia Dwidharma, and several angel investors.

The startup was founded in 2019 by James Rijanto, Donald Wono, and Cindy Ozzie. Its currently focus on simplifying the supply chain in the fresh grocery sector and offering quality fresh food products to customers through a multi-channel platform. The multi-channel approach allows them to embrace the B2B and B2C sectors at the same time. Each channel offers different prices, promotions, and key features to meet specific customer needs.

“Ensuring the freshness of products when they arrive at customers is a big challenge for businesses in the fresh food sector. Food products such as fruits, vegetables, and frozen meats are perishable, therefore, requiring fast delivery with well-controlled temperatures, and ultimately causing high logistics costs,” Pasarnow’s Co-founder & CEO, James Rijanto said.

“That’s why Pasarnow is investing heavily in technology and operational infrastructure to solve this problem. Moreover, Pasarnow’s multi-channel platform helps us achieve faster economies of scale and create greater efficiencies in our operations,” he added.

In the process, the operating system on the backend collects order history to generate market demand predictions, therefore, more than 1,000 partner farmers and suppliers can better plan and optimize their harvest schedules. That way, they can offer customers high quality and fresh ingredients at the best prices and minimize the amount of wasted fresh ingredients.

Currently, Pasarnow operates in Greater Jakarta and Bandung with more than 100 employees and 200 daily workers and driver partners.

Pasarnow will use the fresh funds to expand into new cities, recruit talent, improve its data and technology infrastructure and build micro warehouses, Frontline Mini Hubs (FMH). In order to complement the 10 hubs that are currently availbale across Jabodetabek, FMH will be built in densely populated areas and equipped with special storage devices for fresh and frozen foodstuffs.

Online grocery investment keeps pouring

On the same day (07/9), another online grocery startup, Segari, also announced funding in the Series A round, led by a venture arm owned by Gojek. This adds to the long list of startups in related fields receiving funding since the pandemic. Based on DailySocial.id’s data, since Q2 2020 [the early period of the pandemic] until now, there have been 10 investments, including:

Periode	Startup	Investasi
Agustus 2021	Pasarnow	Pendanaan Awal
Agustus 2021	Segari	Seri A
Juli 2021	HappyFresh	Seri D
Apri 2021	Sayurbox	Seri B
Maret 2021	Dropezy	Pendanaan Awal
Maret 2021	Segari	Pendanaan Awal
Maret 2021	Eden Farm	Pendanaan Awal
Agustus 2020	Wahyoo (meluncurkan Langganan.co.id)	Seri A
Juli 2020	BorongBareng	Pra-Seri A
Maret 2020	Chilibeli	Seri A

“Changes in consumer shopping behavior due to the pandemic pose new challenges in the grocery industry. Customers demand fresh and high-quality products every day amid complex grocery supply chains. Pasarnow is here to address these challenges by eliminating inefficiencies through a data-driven business model. With heavy growth since last year, we believe that the Pasarnow team can accelerate their operational capacity building and business development,” East Ventures’ Managing Partner, Willson Cuaca said.

It is said that the retail market value of foodstuffs in Indonesia was estimated to have reached $108 billion in 2019, but online grocery only contributed less than 1%. Under current conditions, the size of the online grocery market is expected to increase by around $13 billion by 2025.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

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TREVO Car Sharing Startup Expands to Indonesia, Available in Three Cities

After launching in Malaysia at the end of last year, TREVO is officially available in Indonesia. TREVO is a peer-to-peer sharing platform that allows users to book a car according to their needs through the nearest host in the community. Currently they have around 500 hosts who have registered their cars on the platform.

The company also experienced a growth in the number of communities to 100 thousand people. Prior to launching in Jakarta, TREVO has been operating in Bandung and Bali.

Trevo’s General Manager, Brandon S. Curson revealed that the platform empowers hosts to earn money through their vehicles by matching fellow people in need for private rides. TREVO takes a commission to pay for advertising, customer support, and delivery of the host vehicle. It makes the process handled thoroughly.

“We offer users insurance options to grow trust in TREVO, enabling users to rent vehicles knowing they are safe from embezzlement, flooding, accidents and other types of damage.”

Through the platform, car owners or hosts have the option to determine car availability and prices, and generate additional sources of income. Meanwhile, car renters or guests are offered the opportunity to rent a car more easily and comfortably.

In order to accelerate business growth, TREVO and its parent company, SoCar, are currently exploring series B fundraising. The fresh fund is said to be closed in the middle of this month. SoCar’s latest funding round last year of $18 million was also used to build features to enhance TREVO’s offering.

“We are also working on several services such as a long-term insurance package to protect the host car when used for daily personal needs. Moreover, we have several other offers on the pipeline,” Brandon said.

In Indonesia, the car sharing concept offered by TREVO has been provided by several platforms, including Hipcar, Tripves and Sharecar. The decline in new car sales and the reduced demand for car rentals during the pandemic are opportunities for the P2P car sharing platform to grow.

Pandemic and business growth

During the pandemic, TREVO experienced positive growth. Based on internal market research shows, guests prioritize personal comfort because people are increasingly reluctant to share cars with other [unknown] people. Coupled with the fact that guests can rent a clean car with free sanitation equipment at an affordable price.

“For this reason, TREVO has been looking for ways to support the community. We currently offer TREVO services for only IDR 49,000 a day to anyone who needs to make a medical visit, whether it’s for vaccinations or to schedule an appointment with a doctor,” Brandon added.

They also support several medical institutions that offer rides to healthcare workers for free, ensuring they work safely.

Since officially launching in Indonesia, TREVO noted that the demographics of their guests are middle to upper class housewives, young professionals, and entrepreneurs. Guests have the flexibility to stop at several points, chat with friends and family without being awkward in the presence of the driver. This privacy option is claimed to be very important during a pandemic.

“Indonesia, as we all know, is home to a growing middle class with increasing purchasing power,” Brandon said.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

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Sirclo Reportedly Scores Additional Funding of 213 Billion Rupiah

The e-commerce enabler startup Sirclo reportedly secured an additional funding round of $15 million, equivalent to 213.6 billion Rupiah. A series of investors participated in this investment, including East Ventures, SMDV, OCBC NISP Ventura, and several others.

Although Sirco is yet to comment on this news, a trusted source involved in this round has confirmed to DailySocial.id.

Previously, there was a rumor in May 2021 regarding Sirclo’s $45 million series B+ funding from the investors mentioned above. At that time, East Ventures’ Managing Partner, Willson Cuaca said that the information was actually part of Sirclo’s acquisition of Orami. “Let’s say it’s a part of the acquisition process,” he said

Referring to Willson’s statement, this acquisition process, investors from Orami considered to make a top up. Even East Ventures has topped up to Sirclo. Our analysis, this latest round is also part of the strategic action.

Sirclo’s series B funding was officially announced in August 2020 for $6 million, with the participation of East Ventures, OCBC NISP Ventura, Skystar Capital, and Sinar Mas Land.

Focused on SME market

To date, Sirclo has served more than 100 thousand brands from various cities in Indonesia with its four main services. In order to increase the coverage, they began to steadily reach the MSME segment this year with Sirclo Store (webstore) and Swift (omnichannel) products; Previously, they focused on helping big brands enter online distribution channels and implementing omnichannel technology in its systems.

For the debut, they promoted the MerdekaJualanOnline program. In addition to Sirclo’s technology implementation, they also assist in the education process and early adoption through specially provided facilitators.

The report titled “Tech Logistics in SEA” explains the platform ecosystem that helps businesses do on-boarding in the online marketplace. Each has specializations and advantages in certain segments. Sirclo alone has the main feature in SaaS products, to enable businesses to manage and create its own online stores.

With the GMV potential that continues to grow from e-commerce, the enabler players also view this as a separate business opportunity. Aside from Sirclo, local players have been helping businesses go online, including iSeller, PowerCommerce, Jet Commerce, 8commerce, Tokotalk, GudangAda, JarvisStore, Genie, and others.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

East Ventures Leads Seed Funding for F&B Company “Legit Group”

The local F&B firm Legit Group announced $3 million seed funding (worth Rp43 billion) led by East Ventures with participation from AC Ventures. Legit Group will use the funds to launch two new brands focused on delivery services with marketing; and expand operations to 135 distribution points by the end of this year.

Legit Group is a multi-brand cloud kitchen conceptor and operator founded by Sumarno Ngadiman, Monica Evanti, and Asrul Abraham Hendrata in early February 2021. Sumarno was previously the founder of Eatwell Group, the owner of a restaurant group network that operates the Ta Wan, Ichiban Sushi, Warung Solo, and Eat and Eat.

Currently, Legit Group operates three brands, Pastaria, Sei’Tan and Juju Chikin which has 45 distribution points. They designed the business by utilizing delivery solutions generating big opportunity during this pandemic.

According to data compiled by Statista, Indonesia is the largest food delivery service market in Southeast Asia with a value of $3.7 billion and accounts for 31% of total deliveries in the region. This value is recorded to grow continuously by 32.5% every year.

In the midst of a pandemic situation, the majority of the global community experienced changes in their consumption behavior of F&B products. Consumer behavior that tends to reduce their intensity to eat and drink out (dine-in) has created great opportunities for F&B businesses that focus on delivery services.

Legit Group’s Co-Founder & CEO, Sumarno Ngadiman said, “The DNA of an F&B business that prioritizes delivery is very different from that of an offline or traditional restaurant business, which is why many traditional restaurants find it difficult to compete in the delivery service market.

“The key to the success of a F&B business that focuses on delivery services is being able to create high quality food that has consistent timeliness and remains optimal during delivery and at an affordable price, therefore, customers can make it a part of their daily habits.”

He believes that the trend of adopting food delivery services will continue until the pandemic is over. Legit Group’s sales have grown 9.5 times since its estabishment, and saw a 61% increase in revenue from June to July.

Legit Group has built strategic partnerships with Ismaya Group, Yummy Corp, and GK Hebat to accelerate expansion and drive business growth strategies. This position allows companies to use its existing infrastructure to rapidly expand operations without large upfront investments.

“This has allowed us to rapidly expand our coverage thereby lowering shipping costs for customers who order our products. We have been in the F&B business for more than 20 years and will use our experience to create the products that customers want while adhering to food handling standards. the best safety,” Sumarno added.

East Ventures’ Managing Partner, Roderick Purwana said, since the beginning of the pandemic the F&B sector has been significantly impacted due to restrictions on mobility and eating-in activities. They can no longer rely on traditional dine-in sales, they have to include online food delivery services, which is a necessary step to stay afloat.

“Despite being recently launched earlier this year, Legit Group has proven its ability to create unique and attractive F&B brands with impressive growth. Thanks to a very solid team with industry-leading experience for this achievement is,” he said.

East Ventures’ operating partner, David Fernando Audy added that Ismaya’s role in the F&B industry is unquestionable. Now the concept is being replicated through Legit Group by leveraging their kitchen and network infrastructure with various online initiatives and technology to deliver quality food with great taste and affordable prices.

“At the level of speed and economies of scale it will make Legit Group a great player in the on-demand food delivery business.”

Indonesia’s cloud kitchen industry

According to the e-Conomy SEA 2020 report, the transportation and food delivery industry will be worth $16 billion (GMV) by 2025, from $5 billion in 2020. The main engine of the digital economy in this country is still dominated by trade via e-commerce platforms which is projected to worth $83 billion.

The food delivery service ecosystem is also driven by the development of the cloud kitchen industry. In Indonesia, citing the Rise of Virtual Kitchen 2021 report published by Savills Research & Consultancy, the cloud kitchen model currently operating is targeting different consumers from restaurants in malls.

It is estimated that there are 70 cloud kitchen outlets operated by seven players in Jakarta. Ismaya Group, through one of its affiliates, Yummy Kitchen.

No	Operator	Year of est.	Location	Minimum contract	Kitchen size	Price from	Partner brands
1	GrabKitchen	2018	45 outlet	1 tahun	10-20 m²	Bagi hasil	Geprek Bensu, Reddog, The Good Habit Express
2	Dapur Bersama GoFood	2019	27 outlet	1 tahun	14-25 m²	Bagi hasil	FamilyMart, Banzai, I am Geprek Bensu
3	Everplate	2019	9 outlet	1 tahun	6-17 m²	Biaya tetap, 6 juta/bln	2080 Burger, The Moo, Bakso Gembul
4	Yummy Kitchen	2019	40 outlet	6 bulan	5-10 m²	Bagi hasil, 7 juta/bln	Dailybox, KyoChon, Se’i Sapi Lamalera
5	Kita Kitchen	2020	3 outlet	6 bulan	6-17 m²	Biaya tetap, 5 juta/bln	Burgreens, Thai Alley, Yoshinoya, SaladStop
6	Telepot	2020	1 outlet	6 bulan	7-19 m²	Bagi hasil, 6 juta/bln	Yuks Bowl, Kaka Bakes, CWIMS
7	Hangry	2020	40 outlet	N/A	N/A	N/A	Own brand
8	Popitsnack	N/A	1 outlet	N/A	N/A	N/A	Segara Market, Tehna
9	Tabula	2020	53 outlet	N/A	N/A	N/A	Mujigae, Palava, Fondre
10	Eden Kitchen	2020	1 outlet	N/A	N/A	Biaya tetap, 5 juta/bln	Oppa Corn Dog, Unicorn Burger
11	Foodstory	2021	2 outlet	N/A	N/A	N/A	Ayam Sunda Empire, Nasi Goreng TikTok, Chick Pok!
12	Lookalkitchen	2021	50 outlet	N/A	N/A	N/A	Dapoer Bang Jali by Denny Cagur
13	DishServe	2021	100 outlet	N/A	N/A	Komisi	Phago, Daipan
14	Eatsii	2021	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Nasi Goreng Endoy, Simply Fry
15	Boga Kitchen	2020	16 outlet	N/A	N/A	N/A	Own brand

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian