Jay-Z’s VC firm invests in Indonesian social commerce app

Indonesian social commerce app Super has received an undisclosed amount of funding from Arrive, the VC arm of hip-hop artist Jay-Z’s Roc Nation label.

Arrive president and co-founder Neil Sirni told Tech in Asia that Indonesian startups such as Super offer investors attractive investment opportunities given the country’s “demographics, widening penetration of internet connectivity and online engagement, [and] the growth rate of the internet economy.”

The Super team advising one of their agents. / Image credit: Super

Super’s main service, SuperAgen, aims to bring ecommerce to Indonesia’s second- and third-tier cities and remote areas by tapping locals to become reseller agents.

The app provides these agents a digital platform to group-buy and market products through social media networks such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, while giving them access to wholesalers and logistics service providers.

Users can start selling as soon as they’ve registered as an agent through the app. They can then order goods, which are delivered the following day. Once the products have arrived, the agent either delivers them to buyers or leaves them for collection at an agreed pick-up point.

Apart from making a profit by reselling goods, agents get bonus rewards from Super for meeting set transaction targets or for being a top-ranked seller.

The app makes money through a sharia-compliant method of sharing in the profits generated by its agents.

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The startup’s CEO Steven Wongsoredjo separately confirmed Arrive’s investment to Tech in Asia. “Our total addressable market is US$200 billion [though] our business now focuses on Indonesian rural [areas],” he says.

Super was launched in April 2018 by Nusantara Technology, the startup studio that is also behind content platforms Keepo and YuKepo.

Wongsoredjo – who is Nusantara’s co-founder and was included on Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list last year – says that both those sites are profitable, though he declined to share details on Super’s traction.

“We are growing fast [but] we want to remain undisclosed,” he says.

In 2018, the startup participated in Y Combinator’s winter batch and received funding from Alpha JWC Ventures and Insignia Ventures Partners.

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