This startup makes life easier for small businesses with a simple POS app for any android device

Ever been annoyed by slow service in a restaurant? The waiter scribbles a complicated order on a piece of paper, and by the time the food arrives on your table, something is off or missing. But there are better ways to manage orders.

Pawoon is an Indonesian startup targeting small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Indonesia with their point of sale system. With Pawoon, orders or sales can be logged from a smartphone or tablet, and the information is stored online. This has the added benefit that business owners using the system also get valuable metrics, for instance which products get sold most often, or which times are the busiest for sales.

Pawoon’s system consists of a browser-based interface and mobile app and can be applied to work with restaurants and shops of any kind. In the browser, shop owners set up names and locations of their shops, assign staff and the associated devices and create product and price catalogs. They also have access to an analytics page. Through the app, staff log the products they sell with a simple click. They can also collect data about customers, which will help shop owners with customer relationship management such as loyalty programs.

Ahmad Gadi is the founder of Pawoon, and developed the idea to do something for SMEs after having worked for large corporations like Kraft Foods, where complex business applications are used on a daily basis.

“It dawned on me that small businesses would benefit from these kind of apps to help them manage and monitor their business. However, simple and affordable solutions that they can use were non-existent then.”

Pawoon, currently one of the startups in Jakarta-based Ideabox incubator, launched its beta in February. According to Gadi, Pawoon has since then been able to secure some key clients in the FMCG sector and has processed transactions “in the hundreds of millions of Rupiah a month.” 100 million Rupiah is worth about US$7,660 as of press time.

But Pawoon’s business model is based on subscriptions and does not depend on the value of customer transactions through the platform. Pawoon has a free version of the service, which is limited to one device and 300 transactions per month. Larger businesses can purchase the unlimited premium version, which costs IDR199,000 ($15.3) per month.

Pawoon’s free offer, their competitive pricing, and the fact that the app is Android-based makes it attractive to a wide user base and sets this service apart from their competition. Moka, for instance, is optimized for iPads and more expensive tablets, while DealPos seems to be only browser-based at this point. Other existing POS cloud solutions like Omegasoft are much more complex and pricier.

Pawoon is soon due to graduate from Ideabox. According to Gadi, he and his team are “currently preparing for the Demo Day by looking for marketing and promotions partnerships, and adding a few more key clients to further strengthen our proof points for potential investors.”