East Ventures leads US$1.3m seed round in Indo hawker tech startup Kedai Sayur

EAST Ventures, an early-stage venture fund focused on South-east Asia and Japan, has led a US$1.3 million seed funding round into Indonesian hawker tech startup Kedai Sayur.

The funds will be used to build up the company's network of merchants and warehouses, build more vehicles and onboard more vegetable hawkers as partners.

The startup cuts out middleman vendors and works with farmers and hawker partners directly for sourcing and distribution of vegetables. The process helps increase the profit margins and quality of products for hawkers who are typically in the last-mile of the supply chain.

Hawker partners can access Kedai Sayur's products through its apps and pick them up from the nearest drop-off points. Grocers who join the startup's platform can register as said drop-off points.

The startup also provides partners with delivery vehicles, called "Si Komo", to help them reach door-to-door customers more efficiently. Additionally, it provides a financing programme for partners who have limited capital to purchase the vehicles.

"Door-to-door vegetable hawkers probably had existed from hundreds of years ago in Indonesia," said Willson Cuaca, managing partner of East Ventures. "Surprisingly, they are still available in today's modern society, standing side-by-side with the fast-growing modern supermarket and convenience store.

"Kedai Sayur fits into two of East Ventures hypothesis. The first one, technology inclusion to upgrade the underserved merchant accessing technology and second, improvement of Indonesia supply chain."

Kedai Sayur, which translates to "vegetable kiosk", was established in late 2018 by former deputy director for business process and IT of Triputra Group, Adrian Hernanto, along with Ahmad Supriyadi and Rizki Novian.

To date, it has more than 2,000 vegetable hawker partners in the Greater Jakarta area, and the startup said its gross merchandise value grew by five times in the last four months.