Indonesian cloud-based accounting software Jurnal grabs seed funding

An Indonesian startup called Jurnal, which is a cloud-based accounting software for small- to medium-sized businesses, announced today that it received seed funding of an undisclosed amount from local venture capital firm East Ventures. Jurnal plans to use the fresh funds to grow the team and invest heavily in further product development (Disclosure: East Ventures also invests in Tech in Asia. See our ethics page).

Co-founder Daniel Witono says his software simplifies and expedites the bookkeeping process. It’s also capable of generating reports instantly, something that not many competing products are able to do. “We are awesome because we serve two parties, the businesses and the accountants,” explains Witono. “[We provide] easy collaboration between accountants and business owners through a shared ledger. This saves time and eliminates redundant entries.”

Witono’s background is in computer engineering, and he previously worked at Microsoft and local epayments company Veritrans. His fellow co-founder Anthony Kosasih has similar expertise, although he also has extensive accounting experience. When Kosasih was still in school, he ran his own small business and says he wasted a lot of time on bookkeeping. As the existing solutions were costly and inconvenient, this was a problem he also noticed in several other business sectors.

See: Indonesian mPOS startup Moka gets funding from East Ventures

“With its technology, Jurnal will help and accelerate Indonesian SMBs to a new level of efficiency. Daniel and Anthony have shown a strong passion and commitment to make it happen,” says Willson Cuaca, managing partner of East Ventures.

Jurnal’s beta site launched in January, and since then it has been serving 20 different businesses including local traders, importers, restaurants, and online stores. The site has around 100 registered users, and Witono says Jurnal measures user activity based on the number of actions “logged within a specific period of time.” According to Witono, the site also competes with similar products made by CPSSoft. But Witono says Jurnal is different, as the other products are desktop-based and require high initial investment.

Currently, Jurnal is free to use. In the future, the startup plans to incorporate a subscription business model with prices starting at Rp 150,000 (US$11.50) per month. According to the co-founders, Jurnal has the edge over other accounting software brands in Indonesia, as they tend to charge high upfront costs along with ongoing maintenance fees. The co-founders project that the startup will attract more than 5,000 business owners by the end of this year.

“Owners always need to know the current snapshot of their business to make intelligent decisions,” explains Kosasih. “But most owners do not have the capability or time to prepare the reports […] Affordable, outsourced accountants with the correct tools can help them get it.”