KaryaKarsa, an Indonesian platform that enables creators to distribute and monetize their work, said Tuesday it has raised close to $500,000 seed round, led by Accelerating Asia, Sketchnote Partners and a number of other institutional and angel investors.

KaryaKarsa said in a statement, the seed round will support the company’s growth in the Southeast Asia market and advance the platform.

Founded in Jakarta in October 2019, KaryaKarsa has collaborated with more than 40,000 creators and served 300,000 users. The platform enables creators to promote their digital content or service offerings, such as books, comics, audio, video, and other digital goods, directly to their audience without going through middlemen.

“In October alone, the number of transactions via the KaryaKarsa platform has increased 60 percent month on month and we’ve increased the number of new creators on the platform by 135 percent,

“The new funds will enable us to expand our offering and empower more creators to develop sustainable livelihoods. We are grateful for the trust our partners have placed in our vision” said Ario Tamat, Karyakarsa Chief Executive Officer.

According to the statement, KaryaKarsa is on track to capitalize on the growth in the creative economy in Indonesia which is ranked the third-largest in the world in terms of contribution to gross domestic product. As it looks to the region, KaryaKarsa estimates there are 8 million creators with audiences in Southeast Asia, and enabling them to monetize their audiences will be a turning point in democratizing the entertainment industry.

“As second-time founders, the KaryaKarsa team has deep experience in scaling a business with the founders also being creatives themselves. They are positioned to take advantage of existing global disaggregation trends and efficiently help creatives monetize their projects.

“Having grown the value of transactions through the platform 40 percent in October, KaryaKarsa’s traction is set to continue, and Accelerating Asia is proud to be an early investor into the company as they build the creative economy in Indonesia,” said Craig Bristol Dixon, General Partner of Accelerating Asia.

Aiming to provide creators with a sense of empowerment and financial sustainability from their work, KaryaKarsa allows deeper relationships to form between creators and their audiences and gives 90 percent of each transaction to the creator.

“We’ve seen how the gig economy has grown in Southeast Asia, especially in Indonesia, so we believe that the creator economy will be the next growth wave,” said Francisco de la Peña from Sketchnote Partners, a new investment vehicle that invests in pre-series A across Southeast Asia and India.

To help KaryaKarsa scale, the company and board have also appointed J. P. Ellis, a seasoned Jakarta-based founder, technology executive, and policy leader in the financial technology industry, as an official advisor.

“KaryaKarsa has achieved product-market-fit in a valuable and fast-growing space in the creative economy. Their growth and success are a proxy for Indonesian creative entrepreneurs. I am honored to join the team as an advisor and excited about what we can accomplish together to benefit the creative economy and the livelihoods of millions of creators and their families,” said Ellis.

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