12/2/2018 – Indonesian retail tech startup Warung Pintar announced that it has secured a US$4 million seed funding from SMDV, East Ventures, Insignia Ventures Partner, Digital Garage, Triputra Group and various angel investors.
Apart from fundings, Warung Pintar will also receive technological assistance by East Ventures’ portfolio companies including Moka POS, Jurnal, Kudo, Do-Cart, and Waresix.
“While the adoption of digital platforms by consumers and merchants is gaining fast momentum in Indonesia, we do notice that there is a certain segment of society that does not have such privilege due to their overall lack of exposure to the digital world,” said East Ventures’ Managing Partner Willson Cuaca.
“Warung Pintar has taken a different approach to serving this unprivileged segment by providing them with digital platforms and by building a physical presence for them to operate. It is Indonesia’s answer to a new retailer,” Wilson added.
Warung Pintar, which translate to Smart Kiosk, is a prefabricated kiosk that integrates technology for Indonesian SMEs and mom-and-pop stores.
A standard prefabricated smart kiosk from Warung Pintar features a surveillance camera, an LCD TV, stove and dispensers, refrigerator, a digital system, a charging station, a digitized bookkeeping, and warehousing.
Besides providing daily necessities from soap to cigarettes, the kiosk also allow customers to perform online transactions such as purchasing airline tickets or phone credits.
A partnership model is forged with warung owners and they are required to provide commitment, honesty, and time to fix up the warung as needed. So far, the project has eight outlets in the Greater Jakarta area.
“We believe there is room to explore and we do welcome more partners from both tech and non-tech companies. With this new funding, we hope to develop a couple of hundred Warung Pintars in this year,” said Agung Bezharie, the CEO of Warung Pintar.
In its future outlook, Warung Pintar also plans to take warungs to the digital era by implementing blockchain, big data analysis, and IoT.
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