Mobile POS startup Cashlez goes public in Indonesia as it eyes expansion

Cashlez becomes Indonesia’s first digital payment startup to go public after it officially listed its shares on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) on Monday with the ticker name CASH.

Photo credit: Cashlez

The price of its shares increased from its initial public offering of 350 rupiah to 384 rupiah within the first four minutes after trading opened on Monday, the Jakarta Post reported.

Cashlez said it will use the 87.5 billion rupiah or almost US$5.8 million raised from its IPO, conducted on April 27, for its expansion. It plans to use more than 61% of the funds to acquire Softorb Technology Indonesia, an IT company focused on smart card technology. The remaining funds, meanwhile, will be used as working capital, according to Cashlez’s president director Tee Teddy Setiawan.

Established in 2015, the company offers a mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) system that allows merchants to accept payments with credit and debit cards or app-based debit cards on smartphones connected by a card reader via bluetooth. Its system also supports other digital payment methods such as QR code payments and Cashlez Link.

With the acquisition, the company plans to increase the number of merchants in its network from 7,000 to 10,000 by the end of this year. Around 88% of its customers are micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises.

It also looks to increase its gross transaction value by 3x this year, up from nearly US$252,000 last year.

In 2017, Cashlez raised US$2 million from state-owned Bank Mandiri’s venture capital arm Mandiri Capital and Gan Kapital, followed by an undisclosed amount of series A money led by Japanese conglomerate Sumitomo Corporation last year.

Currency converted from Indonesian rupiah to US dollar: US$1 = 15,116.75 rupiah.