Craig PornoreyBukuWarung, the Indonesian financial services company, has secured USD 60 million in a new round of funding. Led by Valar Ventures, a venture capital firm owned by legendary entrepreneur Peter Thiel, and Goodwater Capital, a leading early-stage venture firm, the new funding round is expected to bring the total investment in BukuWarung to over USD 100 million.
This new round of funding will pave the way for the continued growth of BukuWarung and the expansion of its financial services offerings in Indonesia.
Overview of BukuWarung
BukuWarung is a Jakarta-based fintech platform that enables micro and small businesses to manage their finances and grow their business. Founded in 2018 by two Indonesian entrepreneurs, Gabby Nobrega and Rachmad Imron, BukuWarung helps businesses keep track of transactions, payments processing, manage orders and invoices, payroll support and lending. With its technology and digital financial services, BukuWarung aims to empower millions of small businesses in Indonesia.
In April 2021, BukuWarung successfully completed its Series A funding round of USD 60 million led by Valar Ventures (the venture capital firm founded by billionaire investor Peter Thiel in 2009) along with Singapore-based investment firm Goodwater Capital taking part as a new investor. The round also included Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, Sequoia India Capital Advisors LLC (formerly known as Sequoia India), Insignia VC, Flourish Ventures, A Universe Syndicate and other international investors based out of Europe & the US. According to TechCrunch the deal values the Indonesian fintech startup at over USD 600 million.
With this new round of funding BukuWarung will be able to expand its financial technology platform across Indonesia as well as invest heavily in product development so it can better serve its customers more effectively. The company currently has an estimated 3 million users across 10 million microbusinesses that are largely dominated by female entrepreneurs in marginalised communities throughout Indonesia. As part of its goal to reach more small businesses off the beaten path in rural hinterlandsit has rolled out partnerships with distribution players such as Tokopedia Asli for products such as Tokopedia Marketplace TV on Android TV sets & Telkomsel Poin for Chat Shop operators on prepaid mobile phones & cards across all major telcos in Indonesia.
Overview of Investors
BukuWarung, a financial technology company for the “bottom of the pyramid” community in Indonesia, has secured USD 60 million in a new round of funding. The new round was led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures and Goodwater Capital, with participation from Y Combinator’s Continuity Fund, Smilegate Investment, Pavilion Capital, Wavemaker Partners and H2 Ventures among others.
This new round brings BukuWarung’s total funding to date to USD 83 million and aims to help accelerate their mission of helping small business owners improve their livelihoods across Indonesia. Through its platform, BukuWarung enables users to open digital banking accounts with the nominal fee of just Rp0 (less than 0.01$).
The companies involved in this funding package are prominent players in the international venture capital scene. Valar Ventures is an early stage venture capital firm co-founded by Peter Thiel and James Fitzgerald with a focus on global fintech startups that offer transformational services to underserved markets. On the other hand, Goodwater Capital is a leading technology focused growth equity firm investing across America and greater Asia since 2000. Y Combinator’s Continuity Fund provides support for their portfolio companies with larger rounds up to $200M series Es while Smilegate Investment is South Korea’s largest gaming software developer which also has investments into media content production companies worldwide as well as private equity funds investments into Thailand based OPG group and more recently in Codoon from China.
Overall this recent funding underlines both global investors interest in fintech for underserved markets such as “bottom of the pyramid” communities particularly Indonesia amongst others as well as reinforcing BukuWarung’s potential success story within this space moving forward.
BukuWarung snags USD 60 million in new round led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures and Goodwater
BukuWarung, an Indonesian accounting software startup, recently snagged USD 60 million in new funding led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures and Goodwater. This comes after the company had previously raised USD 18 million Series A round in 2020, bringing the total amount of funds raised to date to USD 78 million.
Let’s take a look at BukuWarung’s fundraising history.
Previous rounds of funding
BukuWarung, the Indonesia-based small business accounting and payroll platform, has secured a total of USD 60 million in a new round led by investor Peter Thiel’s venture capital firm Valar Ventures and Goodwater Capital. The funding will enable the business to grow its user-base in Indonesia, expand into new markets across Southeast Asia, and invest further in product research and development.
This is BukuWarung’s latest funding round following their previous rounds of successful fundings. In 2018, BukuWarung secured USD 5 million from US venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Prior to this, they raised USD 2 million from Ardent Capital in 2015 and received seed funding worth USD 500 thousand from East Ventures in 2014.
These investments allowed the company to grow their operations by investing in product development and hiring top-notch talent for corporate expansion. BukuWarung now claims over 1 million active users on its platform who use it for banking services such as bill payments & installment loans as well as its core feature of payroll processing. By investing this latest capitalraise , the company plans to further expand reach its customer base within Southeast Asia region while leveraging technology to further enhance user experience with better tools & services.
Details of the New Round
BukuWarung, an Indonesian startup that specializes in bookkeeping and payroll solutions for small businesses, recently received a USD 60 million investment in a new funding round.
The round was led by Valar Ventures, the venture capital fund founded by Peter Thiel, and Goodwater Capital. This marks BukuWarung’s largest fundraising event to date and will fuel the company’s ambitious expansion plans.
Let’s take a closer look at the details of the new round.
Amount raised
BukuWarung, an Indonesian startup that seeks to empower small business owners, announced that it has closed its latest funding round worth USD 60 million. The new round of venture funding was led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures, with participation from Goodwater Capital, LeapFrog Investments, Finch Capital and Temasek.
This brings the total capital raised by BukuWarung to over USD 90 million since founding in 2018. The startup has capital from 15 different investors from seed to this series B fundraise, making the startup fully equity-backed until date. BukuWarung plans to use this new round of funding for product development and expanding into new markets in Indonesia as well as neighboring countries in Southeast Asia.
Lead investors
In this new round of funding, BukuWarung was able to secure USD 60 million from top investors such as Peter Thiel’s venture capital group Valar Ventures and Goodwater Capital.
Valar Ventures is an early stage venture capital fund founded by Peter Thiel, and based in San Francisco. They focus on technology investments in Europe and Southeast Asia, covering areas such as commerce, big data analytics, next generation infrastructure, mobile first companies and marketplaces.
Goodwater Capital is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build category defining businesses in consumer technology. Since 2013, they have invested more than USD 330 million into companies such as Canva (Australia), HashiCorp (U.S.), IronSource (Israel) and Zilingo (Singapore/Bangkok).
This investment will help BukuWarung to expand its service offerings beyond payments into financial services such as credit, savings and insurance products that help micro-entrepreneurs scale their businesses while creating jobs in the wider community.
Investment breakdown
The $60 million was raised through a combination of venture funding and private equity in the new round, which was led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures and Goodwater Capital. Along with these two investors, there were many more who joined the party.
Kit Bobko from Valar Ventures said in a statement, “BukuWarung’s product combines financial technology and small business banking processes to make an impact on Indonesian SME owners and entrepreneurs, proving once again that SME banking can be efficient with the right technology”
Investments from current investors of BukuWarung also participated in this round. These included Sequoia India, Chikwak Growth Partners, Insignia Ventures Partners, Goldman Sachs Inc., GGV Capital among others. This latest funding brings BukuWarung’s total investments to date to $90 million.
This new round will help BukuWarung to expand its operations further into Indonesia while they plan on investing heavily in technology resources to increase the development of their digital farming program; BukaDana, as well as its distribution service called BukaUsaha; both of which are intended to help small business owners access financing services tailored specifically for them. The funding will also be used to strengthen their presence in Indonesia and Asia Pacific regions.
Impact of the New Round
BukuWarung, a venture-backed Indonesian startup, has announced the closing of its new USD 60 million funding round. The round was led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures and Goodwater Capital.
This new round of funding will have an immense impact on the future of BukuWarung, with the additional capital allowing the company to further their goals in the Indonesian market.
Expansion of services
BukuWarung’s new round of funding has allowed them to expand their services and scale up operations available for Indonesian small businesses. The company raised USD 60 million from a combination of new and existing investors that was led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures and included Goodwater, Project One Ventures, Alpha JWC, Incuventure Partners, BRI Ventures, and Polymath Foundation.
This influx of capital has enabled BukuWarung to boost its digital product portfolio with features like free merchant onboarding processes that require minimal paperwork as well as loan programs designed to provide credit access for unbanked businesses. In addition, the company is expanding their user base with products such as the KasQoin QR code system for cashless payments. With all these services combined, BukuWarung is helping small enterprises remain resilient during challenging times. In the long-term view, this will enhance economic empowerment in Indonesia and improve outcomes for many small business owners across the country.
New hires
Following the new round of funding, BukuWarung had announced plans to invest in expanding its team. The company made it clear that they are going to hire over 100 employees across all levels in the fields of engineering, design, product, marketing and customer support.
The new hires will provide a platform for aspiring entrepreneurs as well as enabling more efficient business operations and creating a talent pool that will help BukuWarung accelerate product iterations and overall expansion within the existing market. This increased workforce could also help to establish a stronger foothold for BukuWarung in the Southeast Asia marketplace.
Moreover, with this ambitious move BukuWarung is looking at consolidating their foothold in the SME ecosystem by leveraging further Valar Ventures’ expertise and resources gained from this latest investment round. This strategy is set to form an integral part of BukuWarung’s growth plans, by opening up channels for increased collaboration opportunities as well as increased access to innovative technologies.
With these new hires and investments, it looks like BukuWarung is on target to turn their bold vision into reality in near future – empowering small businesses across Indonesia with cutting-edge technology solutions that enable them to improve the efficiency of their operations while maintaining overall profitability.
With the new USD 60 million cash influx from Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures and Goodwater, BukuWarung can now expand its operations to better meet customer needs and develop innovative products. The new funding will boost the Indonesian micro-merchant platform’s capabilities, significantly expanding its user base in Indonesia as well as developing its presence in other markets across Southeast Asia.
In addition to providing additional resources to increase market share, the increased capital allows BukuWarung to ramp up its efforts in building infrastructure and offering useful services that will help it serve more unbanked customers than ever before. With their new investment partners on board, BukuWarung is confident that they can make a long-term commitment to expanding access to financial services for millions of low-income Indonesians.
Moreover, the funding could open up access and opportunity for even more entrepreneurs. As capital becomes available, entrepreneurially minded individuals may be able to set up or scale their small businesses much more easily, forming a crucial foundation for further job growth across Indonesia. With the latest injection of funds from Valar Ventures and Goodwater, it looks like BukuWarung is preparing for rapid expansion and success in the near future!
