Kini, an Indonesian on-demand payroll provider, said Thursday it has raised $4.3 million of seed funding led by East Ventures, with participation from other investors.
Kini said in a statement it will allocate the fresh funds to continue building out its HR-Fintech product suite, and invest in expanding enterprise partnerships and HR tech providers to power their HR-fintech solutions through a single API.
“We are excited to partner with East Ventures and all our investors. Their support will accelerate our mission to make life better for the 99% of workers in Indonesia, especially for the workers who live from paycheck to paycheck. With a huge blue-collar workforce across Indonesia and Southeast Asia, we believe Kini benefits both the employer and employees,” said Jordan Fain, Chief Executive Officer of Kini.
Kini is a on-demand payroll provider, helping employees take control of their finances by providing immediate access to cash (earned wage access), bill-paying services, and special features including micro insurance. It is backed by investors such as East Ventures, Ten13, OurCrowd, K50 Ventures, and Goodwater Capital.
The firm was founded by Jordan and Indonesia fintech veteran Sidnei Budiman, Chief Technology Officer of Kini, in 2021. Based on years of experience at Uber, Jordan realized that tightening the payment cycle for drivers improved retention and increased acquisition. Therefore, he had confidence that Kini would be helpful for empowering businesses to manage large blue-collar workforces.
Additionally, he noted that millions of blue-collar workers in Indonesia and broader Southeast Asia are underbanked, live from paycheck to paycheck, and have limited access to credit, hence are vulnerable to predatory lending from payday lenders.
Kini is a solution to alleviate these issues, by providing on-demand payroll services (also referred to as earned wage access) to help employees take control of their finances. Through Kini’s technology, employees can have immediate access to cash, bill-pay services, as well as features including micro insurance.
Kini’s platform also offers additional tools for companies to help manage their workforce, including instant disbursement of incentives or allowances, discount vouchers, communications, payroll services, and API integration with human resources information systems and employee time tracking systems.
Since its launch, less than a year ago, it has experienced an average of 70 percent monthly growth in transaction volumes. Currently, the team of ten members is serving more than 50 corporations, including big names in the industry, such as ISMAYA GROUP, Asaba, Doku, and many others including public companies. Kini is already integrated with leading HRIS.
“The need for financial inclusion for Indonesians is more important today than ever before. We believe in Kini’s mission to revolutionize the way millions of workers manage their money to achieve better financial health, and we are confident that Kini’s team could be a great partner for many employers in Indonesia,” said Melisa Irene, Partner of East Ventures.
East Ventures is a pioneering and leading sector-agnostic venture capital firm headquartered in Singapore. Founded in 2009, the firm has transformed into a holistic platform that provides multi-stage investment, including seed and growth for over 200 companies in Southeast Asia.
An early believer in the startup ecosystem in Indonesia, East Ventures is the first investor of Indonesia’s unicorn companies, namely Tokopedia and Traveloka. Other notable companies in the portfolio include Ruangguru, SIRCLO, Kudo (acquired by Grab), Loket (acquired by Gojek), Tech in Asia, Xendit, IDN Media, MokaPOS (acquired by Gojek), ShopBack, KoinWorks, Waresix, and Sociolla.