BRI Ventures, Bank BRI’s investment arm, announced an undisclosed strategic investment for Bukalapak. This agreement aligns with Bank BRI’s mission to support and digitize the MSME sector throughout the country, which is in line with Bukalapak’s mission. It is said that there are more than 13.5 million MSMEs joining the Bukalapak digital ecosystem.
In an official statement, Bank BRI is to offer banking products and digital loans to Bukalapak’s merchants and customers. It is expected to broaden financial inclusion to develop merchants’ businesses. Based on the data from the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs, MSMEs have a large contribution to GDP with a percentage of 60.34% and absorbing 58.18% of total investment in Indonesia.
BRI Ventures‘ CEO, Nicko Widjaja explained, “This strategic investment in Bukalapak is very important as it aligns with BRI Group’s mission in supporting MSMEs. With the massive growth of digital MSMEs nowadays, we believe that they will become the pillars of support for our national economy in the future. This is also part of BRI Ventures’ commitment to strengthen the tech-startup sector in Indonesia.”
The latest data from the country’s central bank shows as many as 87.5% of MSMEs are affected by the economic downturn driven by the pandemic. However, this also shows that 27.6% of MSMEs operating online actually experienced an increase in sales in 2020 and still counting. This illustrates the importance for companies of all shapes and sizes to embrace online business models and digital adaptation in the emerging continent.
In recent years, Bukalapak has shifted from an e-marketplace model to fintech and digital services. Through Mitra Bukalapak’s online-to-offline platform, the company has reached more than 13.5 million MSMEs and more than 100 million users throughout the archipelago.
In 2019, Bukalapak launched a B2B e-procurement business unit through BukaPengadaan Indonesia. Next, it has launched a mutual fund buying and selling platform (BukaReksa). With these products, there will be even more collaboration between the two companies. The Bukalapak business roadmap is very much in line with what the BRI Group brings, not limited to digital loan and savings products for business owners.
BRI Ventures entrance has added to the ranks of Bukalapak investors over the past two years. Yesterday, DailySocial reported a total $ 234 million for Bukalapak’s series G round from various levels of investors, including GIC, Microsoft, EMTEK, Standard Chartered, Naver and Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund. Together with Standard Chartered, through Nexus, Bukalapak will become a mouthpiece for the development of Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) services.
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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian
