Bukalapak by the numbers

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If you’ve watched the latest Thor film, there’s a moment where he says to Jane Foster, his ex-girlfriend: “You never forget your first.”

The two were talking about how the movie’s antagonist, Gorr, was the first villain that Jane had fought as Lady Thor. However, the subtext was completely different – Thor was actually expressing how he could not forget Jane, the first woman he had ever loved.

There’s usually much value to be gained in being first. No one really goes, “Hey, remember the second placer team in that tournament from 10 years ago?”

In today’s story, we look at the financial charts of a tech firm leading the way in Indonesia: Bukalapak. In 2021, the ecommerce player became the country’s first unicorn to be listed on the stock exchange. Let’s find out how it’s been doing.

Today, we look at:

• A rundown of Bukalapak’s financial performance
• Carsome’s car sales volume (and then some)
• Other newsy highlights such as an oversubscribed series B round for an advanced air mobility infrastructure developer and upGrad’s latest acquisition

(Note: The Daily newsletter will be on hiatus on Friday, but will resume the following week.)

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Do winners take all?

Image credit: Timmy Loen

Looking at graphs always gives me a sense of calm. At first glance, it might seem like just a bunch of boxes and squiggly lines. But when you notice all the little patterns and clues that indicate certain things, that’s when the fun begins.

So just imagine how I felt when I saw our recent story on Bukalapak’s financial performance, which had – count ‘em – seven charts. Doing some guesswork and drawing your own conclusions might sound lame, but maybe I’m just easily entertained.

• Up, up, and away: If there’s one thing that should be encouraging, it’s that Bukalapak’s net revenue has seen consistent growth over the last six quarters. In Q1 2021, it had US$29.7 million in net revenue, which has grown to reach US$60.8 million in Q2 2022.
• Every rose has its thorns: Steadily increasing net revenue may paint a rosy picture, but there’s more to it. Bukalapak was still posting net losses up until 2021 – it reached US$37.8 million in Q4 that year That said, the firm is looking to turn things around following its investment in Allo Bank, which has given Bukalapak a net profit this year due to unrealized gains.
• Going deeper: Mitra Bukalapak, the firm’s online platform for local small-business owners, might have gotten off to a slow start in 2018 when it had a negative operating margin of US$1.8 billion. But after the company stepped up its efforts for this unit, that figure has been slashed to just US$19 million.

Not just “some” cars

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