Bistip, an Indonesian peer-to-peer courier service for imports, grabs seed funding

Indonesia’s Bistip, which is short for Bisa Titip (translated to English as “Can Entrust”), announced today that it closed a seed round of funding of an undisclosed amount from a private equity investor. Additionally, Bistip’s founder Willy Ekasalim will be replaced as CEO by Esia’s former VP of customer management and analytics Rohit Kanwar. Bistip’s co-founder Doddy Lukita and the rest of the management team will remain the same.

Kanwar says the new investor is a small firm with an “interest in trading,” but that it prefers to remain anonymous at this time.

Bistip, which has been around for a few years already, is a site that lets people get their hands on imported goods by placing orders with travelers who are on their way to other countries anyway. Essentially, it’s a way to buy and sell imported stuff in Indonesia by using a peer-to-peer courier system.

Users can place orders with travelers through the site, and use Bistip’s escrow service to ensure payments are only released once the goods are delivered safely. Travelers can benefit from Bistip too, as they can negotiate with the buyers and carve out profit margins on each transaction.

See: BisTip: Indonesia’s clever peer-to-peer courier service

Kanwar graduated from INSEAD Business School and claims to have spent more than 14 years in Indonesia’s telecoms and ecommerce space. He is the creator of a free call and chat mobile app called @me, and is also responsible for several other tech products released during his time at local telecoms services provider Bakrie Telecom.

Kanwar says the new funds will be used to help Bistip build mobile apps, implement a payment gateway, launch inner-city delivery, and improve customer service.

Additionally, the investing firm will identify new partnership opportunities and explore funding to scale the business outside Indonesia in future. In Southeast Asia, Bistip will have to compete with other companies that offer similar services such as Singapore’s Airfrov and Melbourne-based ShopandBox.