CrediBook Closes Series A Round of 116 Billion Rupiah Led by Monk's Hill Ventures

A digital bookkeeping SaaS startup, CrediBook, announced Series A funding of $8.1 million (over 116 billion Rupiah) led by Monk's Hill Ventures, with participation from several former investors, including Insignia Ventures Partners and Wavemaker Partners. Both were invested in the $1.5 million pre-series A round that closed in January 2021.

The company will use the fresh fund for national expansion, technology development, employee recruitment. Furthermore, the expansion of CrediMart's digital wholesale services, through the addition of product categories and conventional wholesale store partnerships along with the expansion of operational areas.

In an official statement, CrediBook's Co-founder & CEO Gabriel Frans said, the company will focus on answering operational problems faced by wholesalers, as well as working on great potential in the wholesale segment through CrediMart. Based on the data he quoted, there are around 200 thousand wholesale businesses serving 65 million retailers in Indonesia, contributing more than 60% to GDP.

Moreover, based on non-agricultural MSME activities, the estimated size of the market is $260 billion. "This is a very large number, therefore, CrediBook wants to work on this potential through the launch of a digital wholesale service, CrediMart, in September 2021," Gabriel said, Tuesday (5/4).

Solving the grocery's operational issue

CrediMart was born from operational problems experienced by conventional wholesale stores that do not have similar digital wholesale services. For wholesalers, CrediMart provides an online ordering application to make it easier for wholesale stores to receive orders and stock management quickly, and is equipped with digital bookkeeping features. As for retail, CrediMart provides online wholesale shopping services, overdue payments, and next-day delivery services.

Since its launching, CrediMart has served around 60 thousand wholesalers and retailers spread across more than 40 cities. Its partners provide a variety of wholesale products, ranging from daily necessities, leading medicines, stationery and office supplies, to building materials. Its revenue growth is claimed to increase up to seven times, increase 50% daily sales of wholesale partners, and increase unique retail customers by 56%.

“Through the digital bookkeeping application, CrediBook wants business actors to have neat financial reports and facilitate access to financing. Meanwhile, CrediMart is increasing the digital capacity of conventional wholesalers through order management and store inventory. CrediMart's wholesale partners also welcome the digital services we provide because CrediMart helps to improve their business from the aspect of daily sales."

For CrediBook alone, it is claimed that 40% of its users come from districts and villages in Indonesia. This application has also helped wholesale and retail players make neat financial reports in less than five minutes and has been proven to help speed up the process of applying for People's Business Credit (KUR).

Regarding this funding, Monk's Hill Ventures Partner Susli Lie said, for the last two years his team has been observing Gabriel and the CrediBook team working to comprehensively digitize wholesalers. Currently, the process of procuring wholesale and retail goods is still performed manually and is in dire need of digitization. In terms of potential, there are more than 65 million MSME players can be targeted.

“CrediBook has identified issues that need to be resolved, there are operational efficiency (digital bookkeeping applications and digital wholesalers), access to financing, and encouraging expansion for wholesalers to larger retail customers. We are very pleased to be a part of CrediBook's journey which has mapped the potential of digitizing bookkeeping and digital wholesalers in Indonesia," Susli said.

–Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian