Gaweku's Ambition After Rebranding, Wants to Create Integrated HR-Tech Solutions

Recently, HR-tech startup Reeracoen Indonesia announced rebrand to Gaweku, as well as changing its legal entity to PT Gaweku Human Technology. This step started the company's ambition to form a comprehensive HR ecosystem in Indonesia with the help of the latest technology.

In a joint interview DailySocial.id, Gaweku COO Kenichi Fujiki said, rebrand this is the company's effort to be closer to Indonesia --- to make it easier to remember and pronounce than the previous brand.

"Previously, we had a desire to make it easier for clients to remember. Because it happened to be in its 10th year, as well as us rebrand [...] we want to focus on one name that really represents Indonesia," he said.

My Gawe comes from the words "gawe" and "me". Gawe comes from the Javanese language which means "work". According to Fujiki, the name reflects the company's pride in the quality of the Gaweku team's work so far, as well as the contribution it has made to Indonesian society through customer growth and the company's success.

For him, this transformation is not just a change brand Of course, the company understands that many HR professionals waste their precious time on long and repetitive administrative tasks.

Based on this understanding, Gaweku is determined to grow its business and integrate technology into HR. Through this move, Gaweku aims to increase company productivity and provide innovative solutions in the HR technology industry.

"It's been 10 years we work around HR, we know in practice there are difficulties they experience every day. With brand recently, we want to become a service provider to provide solutions to HR practitioners and form an HR ecosystem that is connected to each other."

Gaweku's main product that has been around since its inception in 2013 is Gaweku Recruit recruitment agency (headhunter) to find the best talent needed by corporate clients. Then, in 2018, launched a solution earned wage access (EWA) named after Kasibon (formerly named Ultratech), provide prepaid salary solutions to employees who apply.

It is claimed that Kasibon is the pioneer of EWA products in Indonesia. The company provides these solutions using its own capital, not cooperating with companies from financial services. "So a Gaweku Recruit client could also be a Gaweku Kasibon client."

The third product is media online named HR special HRPods, discussing all topics regarding the world of HR where so far access to information has been limited. Fujiki ensures that the HRPods are neutral and don't just provide all the latest information from Gaweku.

The latest product being developed by the company is the Gaweku HR System, to overcome HR difficulties in managing administration, employee databases, payment of salaries, and attendance. According to Fujiki, this solution is currently under development which is targeted to be released soon. "This product will be the first to solve HR issues in one platform."

Profit already printed

Regarding the company's financial status, Fujiki admitted that since the first year the company was founded, it has made a profit, considering the business head hunting classified as healthier because it's B2B, so you don't have to burn money. Although he couldn't detail it in numbers, he said the growth was quite fluctuating given the many triggering factors. Because of business head hunting like this dealing with humans, not from tools, technology, or solutions.

"But about the person, our consultants are human, so there is a rest period, resign or so, when that happens it could affect the company's productivity."

Moreover, the company is developing new products and other big ambitions in HR-tech, if calculated in detail, the company needs strategic investors to help it. Not only looking for fresh funds, he also targets Gaweku to get an IPO at least in 2027.

"When we can go public in 2027, more and more people will be interested in us, so that the HR ecosystem that we want to build will widen."

For the record, Gaweku is a subsidiary of the company recruitment agency from Japan, Neo Career Group. Not only in Indonesia, Reeracoen operates in 8 countries in Asia, such as Thailand, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Taiwan and Hong Kong. In Indonesia, Neo Career forms a joint venture with a local company.

HR industry trends

According to Fujiki, after the pandemic, companies that opened up job vacancies grew high because they began to expand rapidly after being stuck for several years during the pandemic. Although not described in numbers, it is likened to the number of vacancies that clients are looking for through Gaweku which is higher than in 2019, aka before the pandemic.

"But even though the number of jobs sought has increased, it does not mean that people who can fill these positions meet the criteria. Our task is to bridge job seekers who match their capacities with those sought by companies."

Gaweku itself serves all industry segments that require headhunting services, even though the need for technology talent for technology companies has recently been sought in Indonesia. The solution is most widely used by companies engaged in the manufacturing, logistics, trading, service and technology industries.

It is also related to the expansion strategy carried out by many companies, the trend of job vacancies that are most sought after today are people with experience in the world of sales, as well as engineers.

"Request tech talent in Indonesia is generally high, as well as in us. But because there is a mass layoff impact in the US, it also has an impact on Indonesia. The demand remains high, but growth is stagnant," he concluded.