A nascent Indonesian retail tech startup Warung Pintar announced today raising a US$27.5 million series B as the firm looks to keep transforming micro-retail in Indonesia by adding an extra technological layer to the traditional street vendor shops.
Founded in late 2017, Warung Pintar, meaning smart kiosk shop, equips a prefab shop with an assortment of tech devices, from smart POS system, free Wi-Fi, an LCD screen, a charging system, among other elements, and also gives them a more standard and recognizable look.
The company to date has more than 1150 kiosk and targets at more than 5000 by the end of this year.
OVO invested in the Jakarta-based startup for the first time, alongside existing investors like SMDV, Vertex, Pavilion Capital, Line Ventures, Digital Garage, Agaeti, Triputra, Jerry Ng, and EV Growth.
The way Warung Pintar uses technologies to digitise a physical retail channel resonates with the “new retail” concept – using online technologies to reinvent traditional retailing experience – that has swept across China’s internet industry over the past few years; and the concept is now making waves in the region of Southeast Asia.
For instance, we wrote last year that JD.com, the second largest e-commerce giant in Cbina, launched its own versions of the new retail shopping kiosks at 9 Indonesian train stations.
Warung Pintar has raised two investments last year, US$4 million from East Ventures in February, and then the same amount from Vertex Ventures, Pavilion Capital, and Line Ventures in August, according to Crunchbase.
Warung Pintar has teamed up with Go-Pay to enable payments on its kiosks. With OVO onboard as a new investor, it’s expected that OVO and Warung Pintar kiosks would have a deeper collaboration when it comes to payment.
Besides Warung Pintar, two other Indonesia’s e-commerce unicorns, Tokopedia and Bukalapak, have also ventured offline and supporting small kiosks through partnership programmes named Mitra Tokopedia and Mitra Bukalapak, respectively.
The idea of Warung Pintar starts from a commitment to creating an economic revolution in the underserved population by encouraging tech inclusion for traditional kiosks as micro-enterprises.
The company said in a press statement that it has increased the income of the mitras, or shop-owners, by 41%.
Agung Bezharie Hadinegoro, co-founder and CEO of the company, claimed that by digitising the traditional mom-and-pop shops it’ll give them “more competitive in the midst of the retail landscape and build a better economy for themselves.”
Editor: Ben Jiang
