Indonesia retail tech startup Warung Pintar gets US$4m from Temasek-backed funds and Line

TWO Temasek-backed investment firms - venture capital fund Vertex Ventures and investment firm Pavilion Capital - have participated in a new US$4 million funding round for Warung Pintar, an Indonesia-based retail technology startup.

Line Ventures, the corporate venture arm of mobile messaging company Line Corporation, also participated in the round, Warung Pintar announced on Tuesday.

The new capital will be used to accelerate Warung Pintar's mission to help improve the quality of warung (traditional retail kiosks) in Jakarta and encourage technology inclusion for micro-enterprises, said the startup.

It follows Warung Pintar's fundraise of US$4 million in seed funding in February. The seed round was participated by SMDV, East Ventures, Insignia Ventures Partners, Digital Garage, Triputra Group and various angel investors.

Launched in late January, Warung Pintar (which translates to Smart Kiosk) is a prefabricated kiosk that integrates technology for Indonesian small and medium enterprises and mom-and-pop stores. A standard prefabricated smart kiosk features a surveillance camera, an LCD TV, stove and dispenser, refrigerator, digital system, charging station, digitised bookkeeping and warehousing.

The startup has grown its number of kiosks from 12 in February to 319 today. The kiosks are located across Jabodetabek (the area comprising Jakarta and its surrounding cities), and operated by more than 500 micro-entrepreneurs. Several programmes and collaborations have since February also been established to boost digital financing for kiosk owners, including the recent partnership with Go-Jek's payment arm, Go-Pay, that enables cashless payments at all kiosks.

Sofian Hadiwijaya, chief technology officer at Warung Pintar, said: "We keep innovating and listening to what our customers and kiosk partners need. We are trying to solve hyper-local problems that these warungs have on a daily basis with state-of-the-art technology. We're building a team of engineers with strong technical understanding and a big heart for Indonesian grassroots."