How to sell yourself to investors when you’re not a ‘super app’

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Hi readers,

Bukalapak’s investor deck is a great example of how to sell a company to investors even if it’s not a “super app” with market dominance.

The Indonesian ecommerce firm is smaller than Shopee, GoTo, or Grab,but it is marketing itself as the dominant player in Indonesia’s Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, where it claims to have a 35% market share.

It is also emphasizing the potential of its Mitra business, which works with offline microretailers to digitalize their offerings and address pain points in their operations, even though the business accounted for only 15% of total revenue in 2020.

This messaging seems to be getting through. Investor demand for the IPO is reported to be strong, and it may shape up to be Indonesia’s largest-ever listing.

Investors having to review their commitment to Chinese technology companies may start to look to Southeast Asia as a high-growth substitute with less political risk. This will certainly benefit Bukalapak and its peers as they prepare to go public.

— Simon Huang, journalist at Tech in Asia

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