How Startup Services Help MSMEs

The number of MSMEs in Indonesia is currently more than 60 million. Although the size of their business is still relatively small, but together they support the Indonesian economy. In the last five years we have seen together how tech startups try help SMEs grow and develop fast. This potential continues, even entering the next round.

At the beginning of the explosion in the implementation of digital technology, many startups offered a series of solutions to help MSME businesses grow. Bulapapak, Tokopedia, and Gojek are three of the many startups with that passion.

Tokopedia and Bukalapak have now succeeded in changing the habits of many Indonesian people in terms of online shopping. On the other hand, the effect of the exploding transaction volume in Indonesia's two top e-commerce services is that many sellers, mostly MSMEs, enjoy the results. The Bukalapak and Tokopedia platforms have proven to be digital business storefronts that are able to reach millions of people at once.

In addition to online storefronts, Tokopedia and Bukalapak also offer business management, integration with logistics services, and payment systems, which now have more and more choices. So it is no exaggeration to say that Tokopedia and Bukalapak are one of the reasons MSMEs survive and thrive, even triggering the emergence of many new businesses.

In the same period Gojek innovate with GoFood. The service then exploded, fueling its competitors Grab, launching similar services, GrabFood. Explosion of service usage food delivery this is a blessing for those who sell food. Not only serving customers who stop by the stall, now they can serve customers from anywhere, as long as the scope of food delivery services is affordable.

Better capital and digitization

After a lot of evidence that startups can synergize with MSMEs, then there are many services with similar good intentions. They present a variety of services aimed at helping MSMEs to "grade up". One of the most crucial is easier access to capital.

Names like KoinWorks, Investree, Modalku, Akseleran, Amartha are some of them. They offer access to productive loans. The trend of developing capital services has also entered the area of ​​livestock and agriculture. All through digital channels.

Capital is an important part of a business trip. Not only to start a business, capital is also needed to carry out further innovations--expansion for example. The birth of many startups that help MSMEs access capital is important to solve one of the classic problems of MSMEs digitally.

In this phase, there are also many forms of services aimed at helping MSMEs. For example, the emergence of dashboard providers capable of managing various online stores on social media, the birth of various forms of chatbots, stock managers, and the like.

Targeting more MSMEs

It doesn't stop at capital, there are still many startups that appear to be able to provide solutions for MSME business to grow. Not only UMKM Go Online, but related to management and management. Smart Shop, Wahyoo, Bukalapak Partners, Tokopedia Partners, and GrabKiosk was born in this phase.

The focus is not only on how businesses can be marketed more broadly, but more on how to manage the MSME business itself. In addition to "juggling" businesses with a contemporary look, this platform provides applications that can make offline entrepreneurs, in this case food stalls or individual retailers, empowered.

Bukalapak Partners, Tokopedia Partners, and Grab Kiosk for example. They make retail traders not only sell their wares, but also sell tickets, pulses, data packages, and other payments. Wahyoo and Warung Pintar too, only focusing on different categories of MSMEs.

Subsequent innovations seem to lead to improvements in the distribution of the supply of goods or supply chain leaders. So all goods sold will be able to be ordered through existing applications. It will be an efficient distribution supply chain if these startups are able to provide affordable warehouses or suppliers. Of course, with a more efficient supply chain the price can also be better. Not to mention other attractive offers, such as payment options and the like.

The latest, Ula, startups trying to disrupt the sector supply chain leaders, managed to get initial funding of Rp148 billion from a number of investors.