Fintech startup GajiGesa, a provider of earnings wage access (EWA) and other services for Indonesian workers, has added strategic investors to launch new investments and expand the user base. Its new supporters include OCBC NISP Ventura, one of the capital banks of Indonesia’s largest bank, and the founder of Grave & Go coffee chain Kopi Kenangan.
Gazigesa has recently expanded beyond the enterprise space with a new employee management system for SMEs and micro SMEs. Known as Gazitime, the app has more than 50,000 active users for business purposes with five to 100 employees and since its launch in mid-March. The latest fundraiser for GajiGesa’s has not been released. Launched last year by husband and wife team Vidit Agrawal and Martina Malinowska, the startup announced a $2.5 million seed scholarship in February, led by Defy.vc and Quest Ventures.
In the last quarter, GajiGesa’s enterprise customer base has doubled to more than 60 companies, representing thousands of workers. GajiGesa is part of a new wave of startups focused on digitizing Indonesia’s million small businesses. Others include digital bookkeeping apps like BukuWarung and BukuKas for very small businesses, including neighboring stores; Moka and journals on behalf of larger organizations; And CrediBook, which focuses on B2B businesses.
Prior to launching GajiGesa, Agrawal’s experience included serving as Uber’s first employee in Asia, while Malinowska was a former lead at Standard Chartered’s SC Venture and the alternative credit o-scoring platform LenddoEFL. They created GajiGesa by allowing employees’ salary-allowances and other high-interest payers to enter their earned wages immediately without waiting for half-monthly or monthly salary verification.
(Other companies that offer similar services around the world include Square, London-based Wagestream and Gusto). According to a recent survey, GajiGesa said that more than 75% of companies whose employees use its EWA feature have stopped using informal donors for short-term needs. Graphic & Go Coffee Chain has become a major investor in other startups with the help of investors such as Sequoia Capital India, Alpha ZWC and Horizons Ventures, the founder of Kopi Kenangan, and their network will hire GajiGesa, the company said. Of these, the strategic partnership with Bank OCBC NISP will help it launch more services.
