Focus on AdaKerja After Pocketing 14,7 Billion Rupiah in Continued Funding

Friday (30/10) platform job marketplaceThere is work announced the acquisition of further funding from Beenext worth $1 million or equivalent to 14,7 billion Rupiah. Initial funding has actually been opened since last year, when the company debuted, Beenext became their first investor. Thanks to the participation of several angel investors (including the leadership of LinkedIn, DBS, ICAP, and Tolaram Group), the total fund raised was $1,4 million.

The additional capital obtained will be prioritized in product and technology development, thus making service AdaKerja more qualified in accommodating blue-collar workers in Indonesia.

Actually, a similar platform is also being prepared for replication in Singapore under the name AskSteve. But to DailySocial, Founder & CEO Ashwin Tiwari said that currently they are only focusing on Indonesia for business. Meanwhile, the unit in Singapore is only in the beta stage -- functionally it will be the same as AdaKerja, which is already operating in Indonesia.

Since its launch in 2019, AdaKerja claims to have embraced around 600 job seekers and 10 businesses involved on its platform. This achievement makes Ashwin and his team quite optimistic to navigate 2020, even though the business climate is being hit by a slowdown due to the pandemic.

Targeting the blue collar worker (usually workers in the informal sector), AdaKerja is not alone because there are already several platforms that provide similar services. Call it Job2Go, Heikaku, or Workmate. But Ashwin was quite optimistic, because there was value proposition which they excel.

"Yes, I can imagine. But once you open [AdaKerja], there is a major difference. And one most important thing, we are not a digital employment agency. That model [agents] are widely adopted by other players, they charge commissions of up to 20% to workers , the people who should get the whole of the [wages] earned," Ashwin said.

Regarding features, for job seekers AdaKerja presents a personalized job search experience by chatting using WhatsApp or Messenger bots. Meanwhile for business partners (SMEs), they are presented with an application to manage the recruitment process more efficiently. Embracing blue-collar circles, making most of AdaKerja's partners come from SMEs. Because it is considered that the businessman absorbs more informal workers.

As for his business model Ashwin explains, "Our service is completely free for job seekers. Companies buy interview credits at affordable prices, then they use them to invite candidates."

Building a business job marketplace in Indonesia is not without challenges, "Frankly, the challenge is to build a fast-growing business, regardless of whether the company is based in Indonesia or not. Building a strong team and corporate culture is also not easy."

"Our mission in Indonesia is to digitize job search and payroll for 100 million blue-collar workers and 60 million MSMEs. According to projections, MSMEs absorb around 95% of the workforce and book $300 billion in annual payroll; serving them is our focus," concluded Ashwin. .