SYCA Official Secures Seed Funding from Salt Ventures, Working on the Direct to Consumer Strategy

Utilizing social media and beauty products that are currently increasingly popular with young women in Indonesia, SYCA Official is here to offer lip tint beauty products. SYCA Official’s Co-founder, Pamela Wirjadinata said, judging from the current trends and developments in the industry, it was the right time for her with the other co-founder, Monica Tan to present a special platform for beauty products online.

“Starting with Japan in 2019, I saw many local brands with their own independent shops, especially in the beauty section. Next, Monica and I saw many opportunities to take the business in Indonesia. We feel everyone started to gain trust in beauty brands in Indonesia,” Pamela said.

Using social media accounts and marketplace services, SYCA Official wants to give options to its target users to enjoy local beauty products with quality at affordable prices. SYCA also tries to present natural products that refer to beauty trends from South Korea.

Direct to consumer business model

With the direct-to-consumer (DTC) concept, SYCA Official claims to have around 10 thousand customers who transact using marketplace services such as Shopee, Tokopedia, Sociolla, Female Daily, and Love and Flair.

Currently, the company is preparing a website that can later be accessed by customers. In terms of approach, Pamela said the strategic step became more ideal and in accordance with their concept of selling directly to the target market (DTC). The company is also trying to focus on retail and how to get the best profit margins while at the same time gaining wider brand awareness.

“This year, we target to launch a website. In accordance with the plan, within the next 1-2 months, we will release it. In terms of application, we’ll see in the future,” Pamela said.

Although they did not experience any significant changes or impacts during the Covid-19 deployment, because what they did from the beginning was online; but in terms of production of goods, Pamela mentioned having experienced problems in the matter of production because the factory could not operate normally. The delivery of goods also briefly interrupted.

“To date, we’ve sold around 17 thousand products with an average of 2000 units per month since the launch of SYCA Official. For partners, we’ve collaborated with two partners which products we bought,” Pamela said.

Backed by Salt Ventures

As a startup that offers a “new economy” approach, SYCA Official is one of the portfolios owned by Salt Ventures, which so far has invested quite a lot in new startups that offer similar business models. After securing the seed funding, with undisclosed value, SYCA Official has several business plans.

“We raised our pre-seed funding in February 2020. Next, we want to expand our line product, which is certainly in line with this marketing and brand awareness strategy with this first funding. We really hope it will help us to grow bigger and better with Salt Ventures as our partner,” Pamela said.

There are several reasons why Salt Ventures is interested in investing in startups that target beauty products and fully utilize online channels. Salt Ventures Indonesia’s Managing Partner, Danny Sutradewa mentioned three basic things that are the focus of their investment.

“Among these are the founder’s character and ability to turn ideas into reality and to navigate businesses in a variety of circumstances. We also see the SYCA business model that uses online infrastructure to make its business scalable and focus on the right target market. SYCA currently has an online presence that “In addition, the cosmetics industry is a fast-growing industry in Indonesia,” Danny said.

In addition to SYCA Official, another portfolio owned by Salt Ventures that has run a business with a similar concept but with a different product is Sneakershoot.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Explore the Further Concept of “Cloud Kitchen” in Indonesia

In the past three years, food delivery services have become one of the fastest-growing sectors. Many SME’s success stories based on the food business pioneer, supported by a delivery service, one indicator. Grab and Gojek became the two companies that dominated the industry. Now the competition continues. Both are in a competition to bring the concept of cloud kitchen or kitchen together to accelerate the food delivery business.

Cloud Kitchen, also known as a ghost kitchen or virtual kitchen, is basically a shared kitchen concept that can combine several brands in one place or kitchen. This concept, if viewed from the point of view of the delivery order service, will be effective to improve user experience because users can order the desired food from the nearest shared kitchen.

As in the food business, the concept of a shared kitchen can make it easier for them to be present in more places than opening a new branch that is costly.

Research says that the global cloud kitchen market is to reach $ 2.63 billion by 2026. The greatest potential for growth occurs in countries that have a growing food delivery service market.

In India, the cloud kitchen concept works quite well and is accepted by the public. The potential for growth is predicted to reach five times in the next five years. This is also driven by pandemic situations that force restaurants to serve only takeaway orders. Cloud kitchen allows many aspects that can ultimately be suppressed, one of which is infrastructure costs.

“People are currently ordering online, it benefits us for our entire cost structure is built on that. There is no shop in front of the restaurant. Therefore, from the perspective of capital and operating expenses, we are in a position to maintain and grow,” the CEO of the Indian Rebel Food Business Unit Raghav Joshi explained.

While in China, food delivery services also reached $62 billion in 2018. This is predicted to double by the year 2021. One that adds up to the message service between eating in China is the presence of Panda Selected. The Beijing-based startup is a cloud kitchen service provider with 120 locations in various major cities, such as Beijing and Shenzhen.

Cloud kitchen in Indonesia

Gojek brought Rebel Food expertise from India to Indonesia to develop this cloud kitchen concept. Gojek calls it the GoFood Joint Kitchen. There is also Grab (GrabKitchen) and Hangry which carry the concept of one kitchen for many brands.

“To date, GoFood Dapur Bersama, which was launched in October 2019, has 27 locations and expanding across Greater Jakarta, Bandung, and Medan. 80 percent of business partners who benefit from Dapur Bersama are GoFood SME partners that also part of the GoFood ecosystem, for example Duck Dower, Martabak Pizza Orins Express, Bakso Jawir, etc. Next, referring to GoFood data in May 2020, 70% of transactions were recorded by MSMEs after joining the GoFood Joint Kitchen, “said VP Corporate Affairs Food Ecosystem Gojek Rosel Lavina.

Grab also presents GrabKitchen in many cities. As of last February they already had 40 cloud kitchen kitchens spread across several cities in Indonesia. GrabFood also has a GrabKitchen “All in One” feature that can make it easier for customers to order many dishes from several restaurants at once.

A similar concept is also applied by Hangry, a multi-brand restaurant developed with a digital approach. Although Hangry does not claim that they carry the concept of a cloud kitchen, the concept of one place with many brands is very close to the concept of a shared kitchen. The startup, which is headed by Abraham Viktor, utilizes a delivery service from Gojek and Grab and other technologies that support the company’s performance.

Last June Hangry successfully pocketed Rp42.7 billion in initial funding from Sequoia India and Alpha JWC Ventures. Currently, Hangry has dozens of outlets throughout Jabodetabek.

“During this pandemic, we still grow. Maybe because many people have not started eating out. From January to March the growth is 100%, while from March to June 30% per month,” Viktor explained then.

Gojek, Grab, and Hangry launched an expansion this year to encourage the presence of a more massive shared kitchen. Gojek decided to stop the GoFood Festival category and switch to the concept of a shared kitchen to continue with the delivery model.

“Gradually, through data and market demand, we are proceeding to develop GoFood Joint Kitchens in other cities in Indonesia as one of the comprehensive solutions to support the needs of culinary MSME businesses,” Rosel said.

The concern

As any other business model, the cloud kitchen concept raises several questions, both in terms of customers and business owners. For example the issue of cleanliness and quality.

There is also concern that expansion only benefits well-known brands, which makes it difficult for new businesses to grow and compete. At least those two are the concerns of the joint kitchen business that runs in several countries.

To date, the concept of shared kitchens is still an attractive option in Indonesia to encourage the expansion of restaurant chains that have proven to have a lot of interest. Time will prove whether there will be a new local restaurant network that is able to be national along with the growth of the cloud kitchen business in this country.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Quona Capital Led BukuWarung’s Pre-Series A Fundraising

BukuWarung, which provides a financial reporting application and management for micro-business credit transactions, announced a pre-series A fundraising led by Quona Capital. Several previous investors participate in this round, including East Ventures, AC Ventures, Golden Gate Ventures, Tanglin Venture Partners, and Michael Sampoerna.

There is no detailed information on when the target to close this round, but BukuWarung claims to have raised funds up to 8-digit value.

BukuWarung’s Co-Founder, Abhinary Peddisetty said, “Limited access to banks and other financial institutions makes micro businesses rely on pens, paper, and calculators to report on cash and credit transactions in their stores. Our vision is to build a digital infrastructure for 60 million MSMEs in Indonesia, which began with a simple application for recording financial and digital payments.”

As a new startup arrived in Indonesia, BukuWarung is one that is quite fast in fundraising. Last April, they had just announced seed funding led by East Ventures, the nominal was not mentioned. However, they are confident enough as they have successfully trusted by 250 thousand stalls in 500 cities and districts in Indonesia.

To date, they claim to win the trust of 600 thousand stalls three months later with distribution reaching 750 cities and districts throughout Indonesia.

“We will use the new funds to improve our technology team, go deeper into our product roadmap, increase the number of our traders (users), and meet the initial monetization goals in Q3 2020,” BukuWarung’s Co-founder Chinmay Chauhan said.

BukuWarung also plans to launch digital payments and provide access to financial services to traders, especially access to capital as a further form of innovation.

“We are leading the market in this sector with the strong focus on building superior products and better addressing our traders’ needs. We want to activate more than 1 million traders in the next 2 months,” Chinmay continued.

SME Empowerment services

BukuWarung is one of many new services focused on SME sector. From Mitra Tokopedia, Mitra Bukalapak, GrabKios, PayFazz, BukuKas, WarungPintar, Wahyoo, until recently Ula, are currently focusing on the SME sector with each role. From the digital process and supply chain.

This is quite difficult for BukuWarung, considering the early phase with more innovations from its competitors. In addition, BukuWarung is not offering other services besides reporting, amid the fast-moving startup phase, BukuWarung should further improve.

The company alone is optimistic with the accounting app concept that helps micro-businesses to manage debit and credit transactions. The automatic debt notification is said to help the shop owners to receive payment three times faster.

“We’re both come from micro-business family, therefore, we do have experience the difficulty in cash flow management and loan to expand the business. We designed the product to be useful to business owners with low-end smartphones, storage, or limited connectivity,” Chinmay said.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

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Gojek Launches GoService, Offering Vehicle Maintenance Solution

Gojek with JumpaPay announced GoService, a new feature to help customers to pay tax obligations and maintain vehicle registration online. GoService adds up to a series of third-party platform services by Gojek with various partners since last year.

Gojek’s Head of the Third Party Platform, Sony Radityo explained, GoService provides a time-efficient solution in terms of the first mile when submitting the tax payment process, renewal (annual and five-yearly), title transfer, and vehicle registration.

“Efficiency is an important key to the GoService feature in our ecosystem, therefore, customers can be more productive by saving time up to 24 times faster,” Sony said in an online press conference on Monday (7/13).

Users simply fill out the online form on the Gojek application. The entire submission process only takes 5-10 minutes and manually between 2-4 hours. Next, the JumpaPay agent will process all user requests to completion.

GoService sets the cost for administration and shipping from Rp. 40 thousand for annual basic and five-year extension services for two wheels, and Rp. 60 thousand for two wheels. For other services such as name transfer, service fees start from Rp 125 thousand for wheels, and so on.

All costs will be explained transparently in the application and simply pay through GoPay. The management process will depend on the service chosen by the user, for example for an annual and five-year STNK renewal of approximately three working days, or renaming around 3-5 working days.

JumpaPay

On the same occasion, JumpaPay‘s CEO and Founder, Zulfan Fajar added that the company was first pioneered in 2018 as a professional service provider for a number of large companies that have been officially registered in several One-Stop Administration Systems (Samsat).

JumpaPay consumers came from corporations that require solutions for the maintenance of vehicle tax liability extensions and other vehicle-related documents that were loaded with challenges and obstacles.

“Then we surveyed the high demand for the owners of private vehicles, especially those who live in big cities. Finally, we develop the technology and solutions we offer in line with what Gojek is doing,” Zulfan said.

The company also part of Telkom’s incubation and accelerator program, Indigo last year. Zulfan admitted that at that time the company began to expand services for individual consumers. It is said that nearly 70% of the number of consumers comes from there.

Sony continues to wait for feedback from Gojek users for GoService development going forward. “Our objective is to bring something that can make life easier for Gojek users. So we want to listen to the user’s voice before bringing new services.”

Before it was made public, Gojek had conducted trials as of last May. The results obtained, although not mentioning the detailed figures, have occurred hundreds of transactions with an increase between 3-4 times since the first month was released.

GoService is now available to Gojek users in the form of shuffle cards on the main page of the application. It’s just that, the new service coverage can be used for vehicles with a B code covering areas of Jakarta, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi.

Other joint third-party services released by Gojek include GoGive, GoMed, GoMall, GoFitness, GoSure, and GoInvestasi. Sony said the application reach and reliability of Gojek’s technology through this business concept have made its ecosystem an effective platform to encourage business partners to expand the scope and scale of their business.

“This is proven by the total transactions of various third party platform services that have cumulatively grown more than tripled in the past year,” he concluded.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

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South Korea’s E-commerce Giant Coupang Acquires Hooq’s Digital Asset

South Korea’s e-commerce giant, Coupang Corp. is reportedly has acquired Hooq video streaming platform assets. This news was first released by Bloomberg, citing sources close to the agreement.

There is no further details were given regarding the acquisition value. What is clear, Hooq digital assets will be used as fuel Coupang in competing in the local OTT market. Previously, Netflix (the most popular) also had a streaming video service there.

In South Korea, Coupang is a key player in the e-commerce sector. The startup, which is backed by SoftBank Vision Fund, Sequoia Capital, and some other investors has reached valuation of around US$ 9 billion. This year, the company founded by Bom Kim has entered its 10 years old.

In Southeast Asia, Hooq has shut down its service as of April 2020. Because of its major shareholders who filed for liquidation wanting to focus on the core business. They considered the video streaming business model to be insignificant in its results.

Hooq’s coverage focuses on local film and television series content. Including to allow users streaming television shows through the application. An original content approach has also been attempted, but what the market power does not welcome.

Hooq also presents Hollywood and Asian films, this might also be one of the complementary assets that Coupang can use to start video streaming services, in addition to technology/software owned by Hooq itself.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Venture Capital Initiatives to Support Portfolios Amid Pandemic

The pandemic situation has forced some fundraising to postpone activities performed by foreign and local venture capital in Indonesia. Nevertheless, there are still some VCs that continue to carry out these activities, by implementing a more rigorous and focused startup curation process, adjusting the current conditions.

In the Startup Clinic session in collaboration with Ventura Discovery, UMG IdeaLab, Plug and Play Indonesia and Alpha Momentum Indonesia, several VCs shared their portfolio management tips and stories, and how a pandemic can be the most relevant momentum, to see the powerful and potential of startups.

The right time to slow down

Previously, it was possible that most VCs had a target of how many startups to join the portfolio, according to Monk’s Hill Ventures Senior Investment Analyst, RJ Balmater, now is the right time for VCs to loosen their belts while focusing on the right and best business vertical for investment. On the other hand, RJ also saw that startups could also take advantage of this condition to re-examine the advantages of the company along with its business model.

“Eventually, VC wants to invest in startups with healthy businesses, not just to survive in the current conditions,” RJ said.

Kejora-SBI Orbit Fund‘s VP Investment, Richie Wirjan said to not looking solely at the key market, investment delays that currently performed can also be utilized by the VC to dig further on the key feature, both within the portfolio or those with a certain potential.

Meanwhile, Prasetia Dwidharma’s CEO, Arya Setiadharma, utilizing existing data, a more in-depth analysis must be done to see the potential that exists today. Make sure the business model that is owned has adjusted to the current conditions, seen from an uncertain market so that the possibility of the company cannot survive. On the other hand, Arya sees services such as groceries and delivery can grow positively utilizing the current moment.

“For the early-stage startup, I see that there is still a good future for fundraising, but when the pandemic starts to recede within the next two years,” Arya said.

Moral support and VC network

Another thing that later became the VC’s priority during the pandemic was moral support to the extensive network to help startups and founders. For Arya, all founders who are members of his portfolio are entitled to get one-on-one consultation by a psychologist. It was to ensure their mental health, who often pressured to cope up with issues during the pandemic.

“We are also trying to help our portfolio to develop some solutions. One of them is Ride Jakarta, founded by Gita Sjahrir. Utilizing online services, users can now enjoy direct training with coaches easily, at an affordable price. Not only users in Indonesia, those who live in Singapore, also use these online services,” Arya said.

Meanwhile for Kejora and SBI who have been doing business more than just VCs, are to provide support to the ecosystem. Not only to new investments but also those who have entered into the pipeline.

“We do not want to leave them, the best way is to connect them to our ecosystem. Whether through the pilot project, we do this to ensure they can continue with the business. Later, we will discuss again whether there are further investment steps or not,” said Richie.

Utilizing the right technology and tools, all portfolios at Monk’s Hill can utilize communication networks between fellow founders for consultation and possibilities for collaboration. The VC is also ready to help all startups to continue to be able to provide support. Monk’s Hill also conducts a data organization that aims to see the overall portfolio and KPI of each startup.

Diversification and decision to shut down business

When the pandemic began, many startups diversified by presenting new services or pivoting to adapt to current conditions and to remain relevant. According to Richie, this is fine to do, as long as startups can ensure that when the pandemic ends, the new business that is presented can continue. Not just using momentum.

“In my opinion, everything should go back to the core business. If they are not sure that it is better not to do a pivot, even though now is the right time to conduct a trial. When the crisis is focused on revenue rather than starting to explore new services,” Arya said.

He added, currently in Indonesia, most companies imitate other companies, when they want to present new services. Make sure all the right decisions, not just take advantage of the conditions and opportunities that exist.

Meanwhile, according to Arya, an important thing is that the new services or businesses presented can disrupt the business. If a startup has the ability, tools, and resources to build new services, it is possible.

Regarding the decision of startups to terminate their business, as a result of the pandemic, each VC claims to have experienced a number of failures from its portfolio. This condition is undeniable, the right way that can then be done is whether startups can implement lean methods or actually stop their startups.

“Eventually, when employee reductions or other decisions must be taken it is wise to do so. If the process or step can help startups to survive,” RJ said.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

TokoCabang to Disrupt Tokopedia’s Business Model

It’s been over a year that Tokopedia’s fulfillment service, TokoCabang, launched to the public. This is part of Tokopedia’s ambition to become an IaaS (infrastructure-as-a-service) platform.

TokoCabang started to disrupt Tokopedia’s core business model, which was originally a pure C2C marketplace, to becoming semi B2C.

TokoCabang is operated by a partner appointed by Tokopedia, namely PT Bintang Digital Internasional under the brand Haistar. It is an e-logistics company founded in 2018. Another partner is Titipaja, the latest business unit of Anteraja‘s last-mile logistics service.

Haistar has warehouses around Jakarta, Bandung, and Surabaya. They were also chosen as Pos Indonesia’s partners for “Haipos” in optimizing the company’s assets in Medan, Palembang, and Makassar.

According to a TokoCabang seller kit, Tokopedia merchants with a minimum reputation of Gold 1 or Official Store can utilize partner warehouses to deposit their goods so they can reach consumers faster.

Moreover, some warehouses that can be used by merchants are Haistar Gading, Haistar Kamal, Haistar Bandung, Haistar Surabaya, and Haistar Makassar. Titipaja is currently available in Cililitan, Jakarta because it was just launched earlier this year. However, the company plans to expand to Bandung, Medan, Denpasar, and Pontianak.

TokoCabang practices semi B2C concept where the warehouse partners, in this case Haistar and Titipaja, will receive the fees from merchants calculated based on monthly volume. For example, if it’s over 1000 units, a fulfillment fee of IDR 2,400 per unit is charged for each item sold and a storage fee of IDR 2,000 per unit per month.

The cost is considered more efficient than merchants having to open branches with their own warehouses, also to think of labor costs, packaging costs, and warehouse expenses. This is a win-win solution created by Tokopedia for all stakeholders.

This pandemic limits mobility, including in meeting daily needs. As result shopping patterns tend to shift from offline to online. The number of online sellers has increased.

According to the company’s internal records, there were one million new sellers to 8.3 million in May 2020 within three months.

A game-changer in the e-commerce sector

Tokopedia’s solution can be said to be different from what other B2C e-commerce platforms offer, for example, Blibli, Lazada, and JD.id.

All B2C players multiply physical assets, in the form of warehouses, to store items for sale. Having a warehouse that is spread out at several points in each city means a shorter delivery distance. Delivery time will be much shorter and shipping costs paid by consumers will be even cheaper.

Earlier this year, Blibli plans to add warehouses to 21 units, as well as hubs and mobile hubs, to 43 units to accelerate delivery. JD.id currently has 11 warehouses around Medan, Jakarta, Semarang, Pontianak, Surabaya, and Makassar. Whereas Lazada has 12 warehouses and 75 hubs. The largest ones are in Cilodong, Makassar, Surabaya, and Balikpapan.

This month, Tokopedia is to expand TokoCabang in Makassar, Medan, and Palembang. Since it was launched in Jakarta, Bandung, and Surabaya, sellers who take advantage of this do not need to consider operational issues – both when receiving orders, packing, and even delivering to couriers, especially when facing surging demand.

Tokopedia’s Head of Fulfillment Erwin Dwi Saputra explained, during the pandemic, there was a significant jump in the number of orders handled by TokoCabang by 2.5 times in the second quarter compared to the first quarter of this year.

One of TokoCabang consumers is Big Bad Wolf event, which holds an online book bazaar on May 27-May 3 and June 24-30. Hundreds of thousands of books are sold, packaged, and distributed to various regions faster through the TokoCabang.

Consumers who choose services through Tokopedia can utilize the “Dilayani Tokopedia (Fulfillment by Tokopedia)” filter on the search page.

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The original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Traveloka is Reportedly Secured Fresh Funding, Valuation Drops at $2,75 Billion

Traveloka is reportedly secured fresh funding. As quoted from Bloomberg, the company is in the final negotiation with some investors, including Siam Commercial Bank and FWD Group – also the previous investors, GIC and East Ventures.

The agreement is subject to change and secured funding is around $250 million (3.6 trillion Rupiah). DealStreetAsia mentioned a bigger number at $100 million (around 1.4 trillion Rupiah).

Along the process, Traveloka’s valuation is estimated to drop at $2.75 billion (nearly 40 trillion Rupiah). The down round was taken due to the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on the company’s business.

Last year, some sources reported Traveloka’s valuation to reach $4.5 billion (nearly 65 trillion Rupiah). Still, they targeted to raise new funds worth of $500 million (7.2 trillion Rupiah).

All businesses in the OTA landscape experienced a great storm due to the pandemic. In addition, Expedia (a Traveloka investor), in Q1 2020 experienced a decrease in total orders of up to 39%. Traveloka’s affiliated company in the budget hotel sector, Airy, closed its business due to unbearable business operations.

Traveloka alone has performed layoffs for its employees, although the number is not clearly stated.

Aside from Traveloka, some Indonesian unicorn startups are looking for fresh funding. Gojek is finalizing its Series F funding, while Tokopedia is reportedly in the middle of discussing a follow-on round with Temasek and Google.

Traveloka was founded in 2012 by Ferry Unardi, Albert Zhang, and Derianto Kusuma. The latest one has “exited” since November 2018 and drop the CTO position. Traveloka services are already available in several countries in Southeast Asia and Australia.

Adapting Business

Investors’ only hope is the recovery of the post-pandemic travel business. In fact, new normal is indeed being pursued in many areas, but the fear of the new wave of Covid-19 has caused many people to discourage travel – in addition to various destinations, they are yet to open due to restrictions.

The company alone does not remain silent. They try to clean up. With its assets, Traveloka launches online activity through Xperience. They also try to optimize fintech services through several products, including Paylater, which is managed by its own financial company.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

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The Used Car Sales Platform TiinTiin.id Secures Seed Funding Worth of 36 Billion Rupiah

TiinTiin.id.id, began its journey by introducing an online platform for used cars and motorcycles on sale. It uses the auction system, allowing registered agents to bid on desired vehicles at the best price.

In its debut, the company secured US$ 2.5 million funding or equivalent to 36 billion Rupiah. The first round was led by their own CEO Rolf Monteiro, supported by Amand Ventures and PT Luminary Media Nusantara.

Currently, TiinTiin.id applied Consumer to Business (C2B) as a business model, however, they will start adding B2B2C models after this funding, particularly for motorcycle. The plan is to be realized in Q4 this year.

They are quite optimistic about business growth, as the research showed, the used vehicle sales market in Southeast Asia will reach US$ 32 billion. On that reason, TiinTiin.id is quite ambitious for regional expansion in 2021.

TiinTiin.id was founded by Rolf X. Monteiro, a Dutch-Indonesian businessman. Previously, he was known as the founder and CEO of BeliMobilGue, a portal that offers a similar business concept. He “exit” 26 months after the business started, after the majority of shares were acquired by the OLX group. Recently, BeliMobilGue also announced a rebranding to OLX Autos as a result of the corporate action. Aside from TiinTiin.id, he also serves as CEO of SEAuto Group.

TiinTiin.id’s CEO, Rolf Monteiro / TiinTiin

To date, TiinTiin.id has a retail network in the Greater Jakarta area. Since it was launched at the Q2 2020, they claim to have collected nearly US$ 7 million GMV.

“Covid-19 forced buyers to reconsider buying a new car, while the used car market surged. Some people decided not to use public transportation, others might need to switch their vehicles. This led to a surge in used car sales this year. This is in line with the world trend, used car sales rose 106% in the period May to April, and 13.3% year-on-year,” Monteiro said.

In 2018, the DSResearch team presented interesting survey results related to digital platforms for vehicle purchases titled Car Marketplace Survey 2018 report. As many as 96.02% of respondents said using a digital platform to search, buy or sell their cars. While BeliMobilGue (44.24%), CarSome (24.52%), and Carro (20.71) became the most popular platforms for selling cars.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Sociolla Bags 841 Billion Rupiah Fresh Funding

Social Bella, the brand owner of the beauty e-commerce service Sociolla, announced US$ 58 million (more than 841 billion Rupiah) funding from global investors, including three previous investors, Temasek, Pavilion Capital, and Jungle Ventures. This round happened amid crisis in the overall business environment due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Funding is to be used to improve technology infrastructure. Investor support is aligned with the company’s target to bring its position in unlocking growth potential with a sustainable business model and comprehensive ecosystem.

Previously, the three investors participated in the Series D round in September 2019 for $ 40 million. Also in that round was EV Growth.

Social Bella’s Co-Founder and President Christopher Madiam said the pandemic was a challenge for the entire global business. However, he claimed the company was able to adapt quickly to serve the needs of consumers.

As seen from a significant increase in organic traffic on the platform during quarantine and recorded the highest shopping basket rate online. Although, it is not followed by detailed numbers.

“We are proud that both existing and new investors see the extraordinary potential of our ecosystem and strongly support our business plan,” he said in an official statement, Monday (6/7).

Jungle Ventures’ Managing Partner, David Gowdey added, his investment in Social Bella was the company’s important milestone in Indonesia. Social Bella is the first beauty company that presents a holistic ecosystem.

“This additional investment will strengthen our partnership with Social Bella and enable Jungle Ventures to expand regional cooperation,” said Gowdey.

Lilla by Sociolla

Social Bella’s Co-Founder and CEO, John Rasyid explained, with strong support from the technological aspect of daily routine, the company wanted to provide a better shopping experience for its consumers.

“We recently launched a new line of business, Lilla by Sociolla, designed for moms with the best product curation for children and themselves. We see an increasing need for quality products in this consumer segment and we are trying to provide the best,” he said.

Besides Lilla, Social Bella has continued to expand its services since it’s debut in 2015. First, SOCO, an online consumer review platform for beauty and personal care products. Second, Beauty Journal, which is an online beauty and lifestyle media with O2O marketing services from upstream to downstream.

Third, Sociolla, beauty e-commerce with six offline stores and an omnichannel concept. Finally, Brand Development, a business unit that offers end-to-end distributor services for beauty and personal care brands to leading international manufacturers.

All of these business units is believed can reach around 30 million users this year.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

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