Heaptalk, Jakarta – BRI Ventures (04/15/2021), the corporate venture capital of Bank BRI, made a headline for its announcement in delivering funding to Bukalapak. According to BRI Ventures, this strategic funding is a form of the Company’s commitment to supporting MSMEs across Indonesia that are incorporated in Bukalapak ecosystem.
From its official announcement, BRI Ventures mentioned that Bukalapak has coped with over 13.5 million MSMEs in Indonesia, with the total users reached 100 million. By this consideration, BRI views that conducting collaboration with this unicorn company is the right move to reach out to MSME.
“The strategic investment with Bukalapak is critical to be conducted as it is in line with BRI Group mission to support MSMEs. Especially in the current growth of digital MSME, which We believe can be a pillar for the national economy in the future. This action also is a form of BRI Venture’s commitment to driving digital start-up ecosystem progress in Indonesia continuously,” said Nicko Widjaja, CEO of BRI Ventures.
In Indonesia, MSMEs hold a substantial role in the national economy. Central Statistic Agency (BPS) and Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs revealed that the MSMEs sector contributed 60.34% of GDP and absorbed 58.18 % of total investment in Indonesia.
In addition, amid the sluggish world economy due to the Covid-19 pandemic, MSMEs demonstrated their resilience to the crisis. Bank Indonesia reported that 87.5% of MSMEs were affected by the pandemic, in contrast, MSMEs that ran their business online showed attainment of 27.6%.
By this data, to support the national economy, Nicko stated that BRI focuses on assisting MSMEs in facing the pandemic attack and having a sustainable business. The action to reach its focus is reflected by the collaboration with Bukalapak that constantly builds MSMEs ecosystem.
Moreover, apart from the Bukalapak ecosystem, factors that also drove BRI’s measure to perform this action is Bukalapak’s innovation and milestone. In the last few years, Bukalapak has aggressively expanded its business model from e-commerce to fintech and digital services. Starting from 2018, Bukalapak has brought innovation by launching Buka Modal. In the same year, Bukalapak chalked out its milestone by becoming the fourth rank of Indonesian tech start-ups that had US$1 billion valuations.
Further, in 2019 and 2020, Bukalapak has continuously spread its wings by launching B2B e-procurement through Buka Pengadaan Indonesia (BPI) and becoming an agent to market mutual funds, known as Buka Reksa. Bukalapak’s business developments that have the same direction to the BRI’s business field and its milestone have ensured BRI Venture to pour out its fund to the unicorn company.
After conducting the deal, BRI voiced that the Bank will offer financial banking and digital lending product through Bukalapak. BRI expects that this facilitation could accommodate merchants, consist of MSMEs, and users to take out a loan from the Bank to shop or develop a business.
In addition, the collaboration also opens an opportunity for both parties to create more innovations that are not solely limited to the loan product, mutual funds, or digital saving. This deal is categorized as a mutual collaboration because it leads the Bank to reach out to MSMEs and allows Bukalapak to increase its user number.
The entry of BRI Ventures to Bukalapak fundraising has added the name of Bukalapak’s investor for the last two years. Several days ago, Reuters (04/14/2021) reported that Bukalapak raised series G funding of US$234 million from various ranks of investor, such as GIC, Microsoft, EMTEK, Standard Chartered, Naver, and Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund. (WLN)
