Indonesia’s WGS invests in Singapore’s temp worker matching site Temploy

Singapore-based manpower matchmaking service Temploy announced today that it received an equity investment of an undisclosed amount from Indonesia’s Walden Global Services (WGS), one of Southeast Asia’s large enterprise tech companies.

The news comes not long after Temploy competed in the second season of Channel NewsAsia’s Start Up reality television show. Temploy was one of the show’s eight finalists.

The startup will benefit from the investment in several ways. WGS will create an Indonesian office for Temploy to serve local employers. Indonesia is a strategic market for Temploy, as its population of 250 million can be seen as a critical ingredient for potential expansion. According to Temploy, with this new partnership, the firm will also be able to offer part-time web developers from Indonesia to Singaporean businesses at attractive rates.

The deal between Temploy and WGS will help both firms leverage services across borders. The startup charges candidates US$1 for a successful match and charges employers US$2 per vacant slot.

See: Singapore reality TV show Start-UP ventures into Indonesia

Temploy founder and CEO Mark Koh claims his product is solving a real problem in Southeast Asia. “We’ve always been keen […] on Indonesia due to the sheer market size,” says Koh. “In WGS, we found the perfect partner who understands our business and has the capability to bring Temploy to 11 million part-timers in the country.” Koh did not mention Temploy’s current number of active registered users or the number of temp workers the startup has placed to date.

However, WGS says it has more than 200 developers coding for hundreds of projects in 25 countries. It is providing a lot of part-time work to these people, according to the firm, and as a software outsourcing company, WGS is sensitive to the need for temporary employment.

“Temploy can help hundreds of thousands [of] underemployed people in Indonesia to fare better and be happier,” says Ikin Wirawan, chairman of WGS, based in Bandung. “WGS, through its engineering capacity and capability, will help Temploy achieve its vision and expand throughout Asia in the next few years.”

According to Temploy’s URL, the site is still in beta, and offers its service in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Hungary. In Indonesia, Temploy sees competitors in traditional job sites like JobStreet and JobsDB. It will also compete with KerjaDulu, a localized social network for employers and job seekers in the archipelago. Temploy will soon launch its mobile app for Android and iOS.