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Investors of Indonesia are looking for opportunities aimed to adorn the kiosk shops of the Jakarta city with digitization. Warung Pintar is the other name for ‘smart kiosk store.’ It is a micro-retail technology company that aims to digitize even the grassroots of the population and enhance the community around them. Warung Pintar aims at revamping the tiniest store with technologies like digital POS, free wi-fi, an LCD screen, a power bank for charging and many more.
The idea was incessant as a venture from East Ventures, a preliminary investor with bright ideas for technology backed by unicorns like Tokopedia, Traveloka, Mercari. Within 6 months of its impregnated stage, it raised a whopping $4 million seed.
It all started when an East ventures investment fund renovated its Jakarta office in 2017 when a local vendor got dissatisfied thinking a fancy building might overshadow his business. This forced East Ventures to renovate the cart into a fancy kiosk. Soon, the vendor was earning 5 times more. This progressed into renovating carts of Jakarta into smart kiosk centers. It offers stocked carts for a fee of $5000, which brightens up the future of the vendor multiplying his earnings.
Unlike most startups which seek immediate revenue on return, Warung Pintar was different. It only sought the $5000 fee to rejuvenate the kiosk, with upbeat, cheerful, orange and black. Warung Pintar lets techies access free of charge in the idea of helping kiosk owners engage with local communities. It offers new zones of opportunities including financial support, social security, behavior analysis, and community engagement. It has gained a $35.5M share in funding.
Besides East Ventures, other investment companies include SMDV, Digital Garage, Insignia Ventures partner, Triputra group and many numbers of undisclosed groups that caretake a number of kiosk owners and help them grow. Warung Pintar is aiming to connect other financial services to store owners acting like a brokerage that can cut the expense it draws. It also is planning to widen the network with other essentials that may pick up the business with a good share like enabling food stalls.
East Ventures initially targeted the capital city of Jakarta and are following a district-by-district approach to entirely cover Indonesia with its wide connection and development idea. With the increasing popularity of the idea between vendors, and scaling up their revenue, East Ventures firm targeted the most unusual idea to inspire the lives of small-scale vendors and brighten up their day.