Get IDR 28,2 Billion Funding, Helpter Search Service "Rough Worker" Expansion to Indonesia

A Thai startup that provides job-seeking services specifically targeted at blue collar workers (types of unskilled workers, such as factory workers, office boy, warehouse keeper etc) named Helpster recently announced a $2,1 million (or IDR 28,2 billion) funding round led by Convergence Ventures with the participation of Wavemaker Partners and several other strategic investors. This funding will be focused on Helpster to develop products to expand into Indonesia.

Helpter itself is not even a year old, founded in January 2016 by Mathew Ward and John Srivorakul, this service wants to connect businesses in the F industry category.&B, Hospitality, Events, and Logistics to the network of workers, either for permanent or temporary employment. This service is also designed to deal with the company's needs to fulfill urgent short-term tasks, for example to help make a performance a success and so on.

From the research conducted by Helpster, there are at least around 100 million people with a turnover of up to $200 billion for the sector in Southeast Asia. The growth of internet users and smartphone significant value is considered to be an opportunity to reorganize a new way of meeting the needs of the search for "unskilled workers".

Expansion challenges to Indonesia – user education to reach out blue collar workers

Although the percentage of internet users in Indonesia has over 125 million, but it can be predicted by naked eye that generally the internet is used for entertainment and informal communication needs, such as accessing social media or social media mobile messenger. Some special services on the internet are considered new to reach certain user segments, generally well-educated users.

When it comes to bringing services to blue collar workers, then the challenge lies in how to reach these groups as a whole. But what Helpster does is also unique, because they try to approach both sides, from workers and from companies that need these services.

"We started Helpster after extensive talks with various businesses that still make hiring a business process challenge. They are looking for a solution that allows to quickly and cost-efficiently get a large workforce supply. Traditional methods like information on leaflets or through agencies Employment suppliers are considered unsatisfactory in terms of the quality of the workforce they recruit. Helpster's mission is to change that way," said Mathew Ward, Helpster Co-Founder.

It's not easy to change the manual method to a more digital one. From there, Helpster began implementing serious strategies to accelerate user adoption. After officially launching in Thailand last April, there are currently 35 staff in Bangkok and Jakarta. Moscow Pear Recruitment (formerly Head of GrabTaxi Thailand) as CEO is also encouraged to be a breakthrough that can enlighten.

According to Adrial Li as Managing Partner of Convergence Ventures, with business growth F&B and Hospitality in Indonesia provides a great opportunity for the Helpster app to develop in this region.

Helpster itself is currently serving Indonesian-language sites. Users are presented in two types of access, through web portals and applications (Android and iOS).