Edtech Startups Guided to Find Fresh Funding Through the SCF FundEx Platform

Startups EdTechGuided seeking fresh funding through the issuance of stock securities in FundEx, a startup crowdfunding securities. Guided targeting funding of IDR 1,2 billion with an offer period of 45 days. The total shares issued were 2,4 million shares or the equivalent of 5% with a price per share of Rp500.

Guided since November 2020, by three young alumni of the University of Indonesia, namely Zaky Muhammad Syah, Alim Anggono, and Wildan Gunawan. Guided focus on helping users improve the skills and expertise needed in the world of work. The educational programs provided are: data science, digital marketing & UI/UX, business intelligent & SEO.

The rapid growth of the digital industry in Indonesia is faced with a major issue, namely the need and availability of digital talent. Data from the World Bank shows that Indonesia needs around nine million digital talents in 15 years or an average of around 600 thousand people per year. If you only rely on the conventional education system, the pace of industrial needs will not be matched.

As a solution to this gap, Guided was born as a platform EdTech a service provider for learning digital skills, career preparation, and job distribution for Indonesian digital talents.

“Guided has a vision of creating unlimited digital talent because we want to help people get jobs easily and they can also access cheap learning. So, we need funding because we have to scale up our product, and we need a partner for help share that Guided by this impactful for our customers," said CEO Supervised Zaky Muhammad Syah in an official statement.

The company's own business growth shows an upward trend. The company's turnover at the beginning of its establishment was only IDR 2 million, then slowly increased to IDR 4,49 billion at the end of last year. The company has reached the point of profit in the second quarter of 2021. The number of participants who have graduated is 912 people who are mentored by 147 mentors who have joined Mentored.

In the company prospectus, Guided offers a number of benefits for its investors. Besides capital gain, investors also get a special bonus in the form of a free investment class worth IDR 1 million for each person.

As much as 80% of the funds raised by Guidance will be used to improve the quality of technology-oriented products, including the use of AI to provide a better experience for its users. The remaining 20% ​​will be used to recruit teams marketing best way to acquire more Guided users.

Mitigation process at FundEx

Guided is the second company to raise funds through a startup pioneered by Agung Wibowo. FundEx itself offers Guided shares that can be purchased starting from Rp. 500 thousand so that they can reach many people.

In a separate interview together DailySocial.id, Agung explained that the mitigation process carried out by the company in this Supervised funding was quite strict, from the beginning of the registration/pre-funding process to funding. Also, the decision to choose to issue debt or stock-based securities was also socialized by FundEx.

"We socialized the differences and consequences of the two securities products on the SCF platform, so that prospective issuers can choose securities that suit the company's needs and strategic plans."

He further explained, in the initial phase, prospective publishers are required to carry out an e-KYC process to ensure that the company/prospective issuer is a legal entity," he said. After e-KYC is complete, we move on to the next stage, namely the process of signing an agreement between the prospective issuer and FundEx, either electronically or manually alternatively.

The goal is to ensure that if there are obstacles to various parties that the process of offering securities to potential investors is a legal and binding agreement. Next, enter the due diligence phase. Prospective publishers will be analyzed in terms of their performance, business prospects, and business risk profile.

This stage is also carried out transparently and can be monitored with prospective publishers through the FundEx platform, e-mail, or other communication media. "Every prospective publisher who passes the due diligence and launching offering securities on FundEx, potential investors can obtain a prospectus and can start funding the issuance of these securities.”

Agung continued, "Prospective investors' funds do not necessarily go directly to the prospective issuer's account, but are stored in a bank account escrow account. It will only be transferred to the checking account of the prospective issuer if the crowdfunding target for the securities issued has been met. And if the funding target is not achieved, the funds from potential investors will be returned, and the securities offering is null and void.”

FundEx targets at least until the end of this year the company can provide alternative funding platforms for 30 companies. Meanwhile, conducting intensive education through various activities on various online and offline platforms. This step is important to align the public's understanding of the various investment worlds that have different levels of risk.

Based on data compiled by OJK as of December 2021, the total fundraising through the SCF platform reached Rp412 billion, an increase of 115,48% compared to the same period in the previous year of Rp191,2 billion. Likewise, the number of investors in 2020 was 22.341 people, an increase of 319,56% to 93.733 in 2021.