Pintarnya raises $16.7M to power jobs and financial services in Indonesia

Pintarnya, an Indonesian employment platform that goes past job matching by providing monetary providers together with full-time and side-gig alternatives, stated it has raised a $16.7 million Sequence A spherical.

The funding was led by Sq. Peg with participation from present traders Vertex Enterprise Southeast Asia & India and East Ventures.

Ghirish Pokardas, Nelly Nurmalasari, and Henry Hendrawan based Pintarnya in 2022 to deal with two of the most important challenges Indonesians face each day: incomes sufficient and borrowing responsibly.

“Historically, mass employees in Indonesia discover jobs offline via job gala’s or phrase of mouth, with employers buried in paper purposes and candidates not often listening to again. For borrowing, their choices are sometimes restricted to household/buddy or predatory lenders with harsh assortment practices,” Henry Hendrawan, co-founder of Pintarnya, instructed TechCrunch. “We digitize job matching with AI to make hiring quicker and we offer employees with safer, more healthy lending choices — designed round what they’ll moderately afford, reasonably than pushing them deeper into debt.”

Around 59% of Indonesia’s 150 million workforce is employed in the informal sector, highlighting the difficulties these employees encounter in accessing formal monetary providers as a result of they lack verifiable earnings and official employment documentation.

Pintarnya tackles this problem by partnering with asset-backed lenders to supply secured loans, utilizing collateral corresponding to gold, electronics, or automobiles, Hendrawan added.

Since its seed funding in 2022, the platform presently serves over 10 million job seeker customers and 40,000 employers nationwide. Its income has elevated nearly fivefold year-over-year and expects to succeed in break-even by the top of the 12 months, Hendrawn famous. Pintarnya primarily serves customers aged 21 to 40, most of whom have a highschool training or a diploma under college degree. The startup goals to give attention to this underserved section, given the massive inhabitants of blue-collar and casual employees in Indonesia.

“Via the journey of constructing employment providers, we found that our customers wanted extra than simply jobs — they wanted entry to monetary providers that conventional banks couldn’t present,” stated Hendrawan. “We digitize job matching with AI to make hiring quicker and we offer employees with safer, more healthy lending choices — designed round what they’ll moderately afford, reasonably than pushing them deeper into debt.”

Whereas Indonesia already has job platforms like JobStreet, Kalibrr, and Glints, these primarily cater to white-collar roles, which symbolize solely a small portion of the workforce, based on Hendrawan. Pintarnya’s platform is designed particularly for blue-collar employees, providing tailor-made experiences corresponding to quick-apply choices for walk-in interviews, inexpensive e-learning on related expertise, in-app alternatives for supplemental earnings, and seamless connections to monetary providers like loans.

The identical pattern is clear in Indonesia’s fintech sector, which equally caters to white-collar or upper-middle-class customers. Standard credit score scoring fashions for loans, which depend on regular month-to-month earnings and checking account exercise, usually depart blue-collar employees missed by present fintech suppliers, Hendrawan defined.

When requested about which fintech providers are most in demand, Hendrawan talked about, “Given their employment standing, lending is essentially the most in-demand monetary service for Pintarnya’s customers immediately. We’re planning to ‘graduate’ them to micro-savings and investments down the highway via modern merchandise with our companions.”

The brand new funding will allow Pintarnya to strengthen its platform know-how and broaden its monetary service choices via strategic partnerships. With most Indonesian employees employed in blue-collar and casual sectors, the co-founders see substantial progress alternatives within the native market. Leveraging their in depth expertise in managing companies throughout Southeast Asia, they’re additionally open to exploring regional enlargement when the timing is true.

“Our imaginative and prescient is for Pintarnya to be the on a regular basis companion that empowers Indonesians to not solely make ends meet immediately, but additionally plan, develop, and improve their lives tomorrow … In 5 years, we see Pintarnya because the go-to tremendous app for Indonesia’s employees, not only for incomes earnings, however as a trusted accomplice all through their life journey,” Hendrawan stated. “We wish to be the primary cease when somebody is in search of work, a spot that helps them improve their expertise, and a dependable information as they make monetary selections.”