Wahyoo, an Indonesian online retail startup, has raised USD 5 million in a Series A funding round led by Intudo Ventures, the company announced on Wednesday. Other investors participating are Amatil X, the corporate VC arm of Coca Cola Amatil, Kinesys Group, Arkblu Capital, Indogen Capital, Selera Kapital, Gratyo Universal Indonesia, and Isenta Hioe.
Founded in 2017 by Peter Shearer, Wahyoo equips local street-side eateries—locally known as wartegs—with digital solutions that allow them to purchase goods at competitive prices and manage business operations. The startup also provides merchants with offline and online training on best practices through the Wahyoo Academy program, on how to prepare high-quality food or manage their finances.
Wahyoo currently works with 13,500 warteg merchants in Greater Jakarta. The company will use the fresh capital to expand its team and boost expansion into new cities. “We’ll focus on Java for now as we hope to acquire new merchants in Bogor, Bandung, and Surabaya,” founder and CEO Peter Shearer told KrASIA. “We also want to strengthen our team by hiring the best talents, especially in tech and product division.”
Wahyoo and its partners are not immune to the COVID-19 effects. Shearer said the warteg business has slowed down as orders dropped by 50% in April and May, especially for merchants who are located in offices areas. Wahyoo has been making various efforts to support them, for example by collaborating with GoFood to help warteg partners strengthen their online presence.
The crisis is forcing entrepreneurs to get creative in order to keep their business and employees. Wahyoo is one of few companies finding new opportunities amid the pandemic. In July, it quietly introduced a new business line, an online grocery platform called Langganan. “As a company, we need to protect our revenue, especially during the crisis,” Shearer explained. “We saw the demand for online groceries increasing since the government implemented social distancing restrictions in April.”
Tapping the online catering segment
Before Langganan, the startup already operated a B2B online groceries unit to supply merchants, so the infrastructure was in place, including warehouses and delivery partners. “Seeing this opportunity, we decided to expand this service with a business-to-consumer model.”
The Langganan app was built within only a month. It currently serves customers in residential areas around West Jakarta and Tangerang, Shearer said.
The company is also tapping into the B2B online catering segment to boost sales of Wahyoo merchants. “Many companies are looking for efficiencies due to the pandemic, but their employees still need food that is affordable, tasty, and trustworthy,” he said. “To fill this need, we’ll work with companies and provide them with food prepared by our warteg merchants.” The catering service will run on a separate platform too, but will still utilize Wahyoo’s infrastructure. The new business unit is expected to launch in two months, according to Shearer.