Helpster Books 33,8 Billion IDR Pre-Series A Funding, Stays Focused on Indonesian and Thai Markets

Today (12/12) a temporary workforce provider platform developer from Thailand Helpter announced the close of its 33,8 billion pre-series A funding round led by Mojo Partners and Wavemaker. Previous investors, including Convergence Ventures, participated in the funding. With this funding, Helpster managed to raise a total funding of IDR 67,7 billion.

As previously known, Helpter carried out its first expansion into Indonesia after the initial funding received at the end of 2016. Trying to dominate these two markets, Indonesia and Thailand, Helpster currently has a team of 60 people. Helpster was founded by Mathew Ward and John Srivorakul, who previously co-founded Admax Network, Ardent Capital, Ensogo, and aCommerce.

"Helpster is different from other apps in that we operate like an official employment agency. We manage the staffing process end-to-end. Starting from screening methods, interviews, to payment of salaries, all included in our job descriptions. Ultimately, we want to re-create a new employment agency model in the region," Ward said.

In Bangkok and Jakarta, Helpster claims to have facilitated thousands of workers to find temporary jobs every month. This business has a growth rate month to month as much as 100 percent in terms of the number of days worked by its users. Some of the early customers of the Helpter platform in Indonesia include Ismaya Group, Lazada, and Union Group.

Helpster is quite confident with its debut, because it is estimated that the temporary labor market in the Southeast Asia region can generate up to 94,8 trillion annually. On the other hand, as many as 35 percent of business people in the region want more effective workforce solutions. From the user (worker) side, Helpster helps by providing notifications about job vacancies within the app, as well as freeing them to choose the work they want to do.

Ward added that the use of digital platforms is very important in Southeast Asia.

"There are 100 million workers in Southeast Asia who work in the service sector. As many as 40 percent of them are under contract or take modest job opportunities and find work through offline channels, but the majority of them now prefer to use smartphones. Technology can now help perpetrators businesses and workers to discover and connect with one another."