Charting the SaaS landscape in Indonesia (Updated)

Though 2021 saw a record gold rush of US$400 million in deals for software-as-a-service players in Indonesia, investor interest in the industry has fallen immensely amid the overall funding gloom in the startup world.

However, the sector’s potential audience – local SMEs – continues to grow, with the number of firms reaching 65 million in 2022. The Indonesian government is also pushing for nearly half of these SMEs to enter the digital market by next year.

Regardless, 2022 was a tough year for funding overall. Last year, Asia saw venture funding fall by 58% from 2021. In Indonesia alone, startup investments dropped 67.4% to US$11.4 billion over the same period.

Similarly, the country’s SaaS industry plummeted 38.1% in deal value last year. It also saw less than half of the number of deals compared to 2021. Several startups in the sector such as TokoTalk and Lummo have gone out of business.

SaaS is an umbrella term for a variety of solutions such as point-of-sale (POS) systems, HR information platforms, management software, and web hosting and ecommerce. The on-demand solutions enable a small business to scale up and organize its operations more efficiently.

Based on Tech in Asia‘s analysis of funding rounds, SaaS firms offering POS solutions have banked the most cash at nearly US$400 million since 2015. This is largely influenced by big-name players like Fazz and Moka.

Those in retail services come next, with a total pool of US$280.1 million. This was driven by BukuWarung and the now-defunct Lummo, which have raised a total of US$80 million and US$149 million, respectively.

Management software is in third place in terms of funding at US$230.8 million. These include firms such as e-logistics platform Waresix and F&B enterprise solution ESB.

Some companies have diversified beyond their initial SaaS offerings. Sirclo, for instance, began as a Shopify-like web store for small online businesses but has now expanded into a full-fledged ecommerce enabler.

Much of that diversification happened through mergers and acquisitions. Sirclo merged with ecommerce agency Icube in 2020 before going on to acquire new-retail startup Warung Pintar and parenting platform Orami.

Mekari is another acquisition-heavy company. In 2021, it bought CRM platform Qontak shortly after Mekari raised US$18 million in series D funding. Other acquisitions include accounting apps Sleekr and Jurnal as well as HR management system Talenta.

In this landscape report, we map out the key players in Indonesia’s SaaS space, look at investment trends, and provide data on the funding rounds we’re aware of.

Here are the details on the funding rounds that we’ve tracked: