East Ventures and Init-6 Inject Pre-Early Funding for Office Equipment Rental Startup "Bioma"

Rising inflation and reducing fuel subsidies have limited the purchasing power of some people. This has inspired several parties to offer services or products that support efficiency. One of which is Biome, a Product-as-a-Service startup that offers business customers access to rent various types of physical assets, such as computers, tvs, office desks, and so on.

Today (4/10) the company announced the acquisition of pre-early stage funding (pre-seed) with an undisclosed amount. This funding round was led by East Ventures and Init-6.

The solution offered by Bioma is expected to be able to overcome various problems and difficulties faced by customers related to limited capital, amount of usage, and storage space in managing assets.

Bioma Co-Founder & CEO Arlo Erdaka expressed his belief in Bioma's mission in enabling and transforming businesses in Indonesia to become asset-light and save time, energy and capital to manage physical assets. "Our solution allows businesses to focus on the important aspects of allocating resources, providing convenience and affordability," he added.

Partners East Ventures Avina Sugiarto also added that currently there has been a shift in purchasing behavior, access is more important than ownership. Bioma exists as a solution to bridge the gap between asset owners and users thereby paving the way for better utilization of goods.

"We believe there is a great opportunity in this industry. With the strong will and experience of the Bioma team in technology, product and operations, we are excited to grow with Bioma and accelerate the shift to an increasingly circular consumption pattern," said Avina.

The company confirmed that it would allocate the funding obtained to expand their services, especially to serve various types of business needs of customers. Going forward, Bioma will allocate these funds to increase resources, especially in the areas of operations, products, and technology, to ensure user experience (user experience) better.

Services and products

Bioma was founded in 2022 by Arlo Erdaka (CEO), Melvin Juwono (COO), Gideon Yuwono (CPO), Obed Tandadjaja (CTO), and Marcel Christianis (CGO). They are experts in the investment industry and technology companies with a proven track record as founders of acquired startups.

At that time, they realized that there was a demand for alternative ways of consuming physical assets. The solution presented by Bioma provides flexibility, choice, and convenience for business owners to rent rather than buy goods to be used. On the other hand, Bioma also overcomes the complexity of business operations in fulfilling and maintaining the goods they buy.

In addition to offering low cost savings on assets, this solution also acts as an environmentally friendly alternative to unsustainable consumption patterns and provides the possibility of reuse of one item by many customers. Biome itself will be responsible for managing the cycle of use of goods by recycling or changing the function of an item to minimize the amount of waste generated.

Some examples of cases in society are, they continuously buy expensive goods only to be used in a short time. After the goods are purchased, many customers experience difficulties in operational matters that are sometimes complicated, such as maintenance and repair of damaged goods, and ultimately lead to decreased productivity in many cases.

In the operational aspect, Bioma also provides opportunities for brands to become circular. By implementing the same vision to enable asset light business, more than 90% of the inventory offered by Bioma is owned by third parties such as brands and individuals through a profit sharing model, in which Bioma is responsible for managing the operations comprehensively. end-to-end. This allows brands to expand their business into the rental market without the need to build their own rental supply chain system.

Bioma services are used by business owners in various sectors, from property to agriculture, with businesses of all sizes, from startups to large corporations. Bioma offers a rental marketplace of various physical goods that can be accessed through their website. Bioma continues to discover more and more new business needs that show high growth possibilities and potential.

Bioma offers rental access to quality physical assets ranging from electronic devices, furniture, kitchen utensils, and mother & baby equipment. To date, the company has several well-known partners such as Informa, Pashouses, Mamikos, Transfez, Sekolah.mu, and more than 20 thousand users.

Init-6 Venture Partners Rexi Christopher expressed his trust in Bioma in providing rental services and solutions, not only for retail customers but also for businesses. "The global trend is gradually moving from the mainstream, buy and throw, linear economy to circular economy, and the market opportunities in the circular economy are quite large and will continue to grow. Especially with the huge potential of business owners who are currently ambitious to change their business model become light assets," he said