Listening to Majoo's Strategy to Raise Funds in the Middle of "Tech Winter"

problem"TechWinter" is still the focus of startup activists at this time. It is difficult to raise funds, requiring founder to tighten the headband while looking for new innovations to add revenue streams.

In this #Tuesdaystartup session, DailySocial.id with Co-Founder & CEO majoo Adi W. Rahadi discussed the ideal strategy for startups when conducting fundraising activities, even though conditions were still difficult and not many investors wanted to provide fresh funds to startups.

Save expenses and keep runway

One way for startups to survive when conditions are difficult is to be able to make extreme cost savings so that runway stay awake. On the other hand, startups must also be able to produce new innovations that are relevant to the target market, without sacrificing expenses.

In this case what happened to majoo can be a lesson. When successful in getting funding from angel investors last 2019, they experienced business growth, then it was hampered due to the pandemic in early 2020.

In order to continue to survive and prove to investors that their business is still relevant, the company postponed its 2020 fundraising activity to focus on developing features that are then needed by users.

After the business is growing again, majoo then gets a stable income from their users with the presence of new features that can be integrated into the platform marketplace.

"The pandemic has fortunately been the catalyst and accelerated the adoption of retailers to start later go digital. Not only healthtech and EdTech However, the retail business has also experienced these changes, and with the features that we offer, it turns out to be very much needed by them," said Adi.

Although realizing that 2021 and 2022 will be very difficult years for startups to get investment, the majoo team believes that startup businesses have a clear focus and have a strong strategy to be successful. profitable, it is believed that investors will be willing to provide fresh funds to startups.

In this case, the difficulty is not only experienced by startups that are still in the early stages, but according to Adi, startups that have entered the advanced stage or later stages also difficult to get fresh funds.

Advanced funding pocket

With a strategy to save money and focus on feature development, in 2021, Majoo finally gets Pre-Series A . funding worth $4 million or equivalent to 56,6 billion Rupiah. This round was led by AC Ventures, with the involvement of BRI Ventures and Xendit. This funding then became an achievement in itself for the company, seen from the ranks of investors involved in this funding.

Then in 2022, majoo again completed Series A . fundraising worth $10 million or around 149 billion Rupiah. Without mentioning his name, this round was led by a London-based equity investor focused on fintech. Other investors involved in the funding include BRI Ventures, AC Ventures, Quona Capital, and Xendit.

According to Adi, so that startups can attract investors' attention and then invest in them, there are several strategic ways that must be done. Among them is not depending on growth at all costs. Investors today are more interested in funding quality startups and have a clear strategy for profitability. Founders who care about business growth metrics and long-term cost metrics are also a concern for investors.

"The trust that has been given to majoo in the last two years is certainly proof to the startup ecosystem in Indonesia that there are still investors who are optimistic and willing to invest, if they can maintain and regulate runway smartly and carefully using the funding that has been obtained previously," said Adi.

majoo was founded by three founders, including Adi W. Rahadi (CEO), Audia R. Harahap (COO), and Bayu Indriarko (VP Engineering). Previously, the three founders were retail business players who also served SME customers, so they quite understood the various difficulties encountered in the field.

The majoo service starts from a point of sale (POS) aka cashier application. Currently, it continues to be expanded to include employee management, inventory, CRM applications, to online ordering. Statistically, majoo claims to have grown by 85% YoY and has acquired more than 20K active users with a good retention rate.