Mekari, an Indonesia-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup, announced Friday its latest funding of $50 million led by Money Forward Inc, the largest SaaS provider of financial planning and accounting applications from Japan.
This funding was also followed by the participation of previous investors, Mekari said in a statement. Investors who have participated in Mekari’s previous funding rounds include East Ventures, Beenext, Mandiri Capital, Alto Partners, and Prasetia.
Mekari’s Chief Executive Officer Suwandi Soh said that Mekari will allocate the funds to expand into financial technology services (fintech), thereby enhancing support for the digital transformation of clients, notably micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
In addition, he said Mekari will scale up its human resources, especially product and engineering teams, who will spearhead the creation and deployment of innovative solutions.
“As the market enters economic recovery, digital transformation is crucial as it provides companies, especially MSMEs, the agility they need to capture new business opportunities – allowing them to not only grow, but also thrive. Therefore, Mekari’s main focus is to support our client on their transformation journey by continuously providing reliable and innovative technology solutions that are tailor-made to their needs,” said Soh.
“On top of that, we are focused on developing a broad range of contextual financial services to help companies solve the unique financial needs and challenges they face. The financial services business is the key driving factor to increase financial literacy and accessibility to all stakeholders within the Mekari ecosystem. The first stage of our expansion will be the proliferation of affordable and seamless financial services for our customers,” he added.
Mekari is a SaaS company in Indonesia that provides a cloud-based platform as a business operational system. As the leading provider of business to business (B2B) SaaS solutions, it helps companies ranging from multi national companies (MNCs) to MSMEs digitize and automate their operations through efficient and easily-accessible business technology solutions.
Its Solutions include human resources management and payroll, billing and accounting, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and taxation systems. Currently, the company has more than 35,000 clients and 800,000 active users, primarily from MSMEs, and is the parent brand for Talenta, Jurnal, Qontak, Klikpajak, and Flex.
“We realize that Indonesia’s market has huge potential, as seen from the surge of business and people who are increasingly tech-savvy. We have been working with Mekari for several years and our positive experiences have strongly convinced us that Mekari would be able to tap into its full potential and drive the digitalization growth in Indonesia and Southeast Asia. We believe that they will become a pivotal platform in empowering businesses and professionals in the country,” said Yosuke Tsuji, President and Chief Executive Officer of Money Forward Inc.
According to the statement, the SaaS sector has seen tremendous growth in Indonesia in recent years. Cited a research by the Boston Consulting Group, it said the market size of Indonesia’s SaaS business is expected to grow at 25 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to reach $800 million in 2023. In line with this trajectory, Mekari has also recorded an 11 times growth over the past four years.