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Media giant Emtek Group boosts investment in Kudo

In another display of confidence in the e-commerce industry, online-to-offline disbursement platform Kudo has just secured a multi-million dollar boost from its main investor, media company Emtek Group

Dylan Amirio (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Thu, September 15, 2016

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Media giant Emtek Group boosts investment in Kudo

I

n another display of confidence in the e-commerce industry, online-to-offline disbursement platform Kudo has just secured a multi-million dollar boost from its main investor, media company Emtek Group.

With the funds, Kudo aims to expand the number of its agents throughout Indonesia, chief operating officer Agung Nugroho said. Currently, Kudo claims to have recruited more than 150,000 offline agents in over 50 Indonesian cities, with a target of reaching 200,000 agents by the end of the year and 1 million agents by 2018.

Fifty percent of Kudo’s agents are based in Java while another 30 percent are situated in Sumatra and 20 percent in Kalimantan, Makassar and other parts of the country. Kudo launched its mobile app for Android devices earlier this year.

“Usually the amount of investment that we receive periodically from Emtek ranges in the hundreds of billions of rupiah,” Agung said when contacted following the announcement on Wednesday, declining to disclose the size of the investment other than to say the investment showed “confidence” in the company’s performance and the e-commerce industry.

Indonesia’s e-commerce market is expected to earn Rp 25 trillion (US$1.89 billion) by the end of this year and is projected to bring in $130 billion by 2020, with 37 million consumers recorded online in 2015.

Media investor conglomerate Emtek has previously invested in other e-commerce platforms such as Bukalapak, Lakupon.com and Bobobobo.

Kudo’s business plan covers targeting those who do not have credit cards or bank accounts, connecting online merchants with offline customers through the use of agents.

Agents function typically by receiving cash from buyers and arranging the payment to be made in installations: a business relationship that is primarily built on trust. Agents receive a small commission for every product they sell.

Currently, 150,000 entrepreneurs have been molded through Kudo’s platform, with more hopefully signing up to their concept. Among their e-commerce partners are Lazada and Bukalapak, the latter of which is a Kudo sister company.

By downloading the Kudo mobile app, aspiring entrepreneurs and vendors are able to sell their wares through the mobile platform to offline consumers, with the sign-up procedure being highly specific toward what the user wants to sell.

With only around 5 million Indonesians having credit cards, Agung said Kudo would appeal to the section of the populace who are of productive age but are unbanked, opening the doors to the world of e-commerce.

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