Gift Card Indonesia nabs $2 million series A funding

Although Jakarta Founder Institute has been around for more than two years, it is just now seeing its first series A funding announcement from one of its graduates. Gift Card Indonesia (GCI), founded by Antonius Taufan, revealed a a US$2 million investment led by US-based Sovereign’s Capital. Other investors in the round include Lippo Digital Ventures, SMDV (Sinar Mas Digital Ventures), and RMK Ventures.

Launched in 2012, GCI has two products. The first is Fokado, which offers gifts in the form of experiences such as dining and spa treatments. Second is the TaDa! card, a multi-purpose gift card which can be used at over 40 different merchants and 14 charity institutions. The team currently focuses on business-to-business partnerships and has already worked with more than 100 corporate customers in Indonesia. Some of these clients have global brand names such as Astra International, Reckitt Benckiser, Allianz, and Acer.

Our mission is to provide end-to-end solutions for the gift card ecosystem in Indonesia and expand through growth opportunities by adding new products and services in the gifting industry.

The company will use the newly acquired cash to enter the business-to-consumer space and expand regionally. Investors such as SMDV and Lippo Digital Ventures are part of huge local conglomerates, which will be useful to provide GCI with the necessary distribution networks and processing systems.

“We intend to pull together our retail synergies across Hypermart, Matahari, Lippo Malls and other businesses to accelerate growth and solidify GCI’s market dominance,” says Steve Patuwo of Lippo Digital Ventures.

Luke Roush of Sovereign’s Capital believes in both the business and the market. He says, “Our firm invests in outstanding leaders who have demonstrated market traction pursuing sizable growth opportunities. This is a sector that has grown globally, and is just reaching an inflection point in Indonesia. The prepaid segment is still quite under-developed, and GCI is poised to drive development through the use of technology and strong local market awareness.”

When it comes to centralized gift cards in Indonesia, there aren’t a lot of competitions for GCI. This investment also marks Lippo Digital Ventures’ first announced funding in the country.