📌 MAROKO133 Update startup: 🧩SaaS leader Mekari acquires Desty. 🏆Sea Ltd back on t
Dear subscribers,
Indonesia ended the last week in horror as riots erupts across Indonesia driven by political demonstration that turned fatal. The whole weekend was a terrorizing one as riots spreads to smaller regions. Although most of the riots have died down, this week still starts in a rather fearful mood. We wish everyone safe and hope the situation improves soon for everyone
And now, this week’s highlights: funding (Pintarnya, Blitz, Kozystay), platform moves (Mekari, Amartha), and profitability signals (Wagely). Around the region, SeaLtd retakes the top spot by market cap, Atome scales profitably, and ZUZU raises to double-down on AI. Payment rails and rules continue to strengthen supporting Southeast Asia fintech’s march toward ~US$1.1T in 2025.
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🚨 What’s New
Funding round-up (ID ecosystem):
Pintarnya, Indonesia’s jobs & worker-finance platform raised a US$16.7M Series A led by Square Peg, Vertex Ventures, and East Ventures to deepen its tech stack and expand worker financing. Traction to date: 10M+ job seekers, 40K+ employers, nearly 5× YoY revenue growth, breakeven targeted this year, and potential regional expansion. [Read more]
Blitz Electric Mobility, Indonesia-based EV logistics enabler closed Pre-Series A led by Vynn Capital with Iterative Capital and new investors including Balaji Srinivasan. In 2024: 3× revenue growth, 70% lower burn. Cumulative stats: 14M+ deliveries, 1,000+ e-motorbikes, 220M km traveled, operations in 30 cities. Indonesia’s courier market is projected to grow from US$7.86B (2025) to US$11.15B (2030). [Read more]
Kozystay acquires BaliSuperHost. Shortly after a Series A led by Integra Partners with Cercano Management and Intudo, Kozystay bought BaliSuperHost, the island’s largest premium villa operator. The combined group becomes Indonesia’s largest tech-enabled short-term rental manager with 1,000+ units across apartments, villas, and aparthotels. [Read more]
Mekari (Indonesia’s most valued SaaS startup) acquired Desty, an omnichannel commerce platform used by thousands of merchants. The move extends Mekari from back-office tools into integrated digital commerce—unifying inventory, orders, warehousing, products, finance, and customer comms in one system. Desty (founded 2021) adds landing pages, online stores, POS, and omnichannel orchestration. Expect faster merchant growth and stronger positioning as an end-to-end SME platform in Indonesia. [Read more]
Mekari and Desty founding team / Doc. Mekari
Amartha becomes Amartha Financial Group (ID) to expand beyond micro-lending into payments and micro-investment to strengthen village-level economies (50,000 villages). With backers like IFC and Women’s World Banking, Amartha applies AI-based credit scoring from a decade of community data to deliver inclusive products distinct from urban-centric fintechs—while advancing financial literacy and inclusion for strategic segments such as women. [Read more]
Earned wage access platform Wagely reports full profitability, with US$120M+ disbursed across 3.5M transactions and loss rates <0.5%. With 200+ employers (incl. Adira Finance, BAT), Wagely serves 1M+ workers in Indonesia, positioning EWA as an employee benefit (not a loan) to drive recurring revenue. Beyond EWA, Wagely added savings and budgeting, and expanded in Bangladesh. Wagely sees room to apply generative AI for efficiency and worker financial literacy. [Read more]
👏 What’s Exciting
Sea Ltd. back at #1 by market cap (SEA) Sea reclaimed the title of Southeast Asia’s most valuable public company at ~US$111B, edging past DBS (~US$110.3B) after a 300% rally fueled by Shopee outperformance. Cost discipline drove profitability; SPX Express logistics and digital finance are long-term levers. DBS also rallied ~65% on lending and wealth management strength but ceded the top spot.
Sea currently has a market capitalization of US$108.46n / Doc. Sea
Indonesia’s tech and fintech ecosystem continues to accelerate. Waterhub secured seed funding to scale its clean water innovation, while Flip and Bank Aladin Syariah launched an LPS-guaranteed sharia savings account. SeaBank posted annual profit increase, but challenges persist as scam losses surged in 2025. At the same time, Danantara starts executing strategic investments, and Komdigi’s sends out ultimatum to Roblox.
Looking ahead, QRIS remains the backbone of Indonesia’s payment system, now reaching 57M users in 2025. Cross-border corridors with Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore contributed significantly to QRIS’s growth, while expansion to Japan is already live, with China, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea on the horizon. These developments reinforce QRIS as a model for regional payment integration, boosting both inbound tourism and outbound digital commerce.
Indonesia’s sovereign-linked Danantara realized Rp 179.05T (~USD 11B) in investments in H1 2025, channeling funds into infrastructure, sustainability, and the digital economy. The capital deployment underscores the state’s growing role as both investor and market shaper in key strategic sectors. Read more
Waterhub raises seed funding 💧 Indonesian water-tech startup Waterhub has secured seed investment from Archipelago VC and The Radical Fund. The fresh capital underscores growing investor appetite in climate-tech solutions, with Waterhub positioned to scale innovations that tackle Indonesia’s chronic water access and sustainability challenges—an area with strong regulatory backing and rising demand from both urban and rural markets. Read more
Flip x Bank Aladin launch sharia savings 🏦 Payment platform Flip and Bank Aladin Syariah have rolled out Super Flip Tabungan Syariah, a sharia-compliant savings account guaranteed by LPS (Indonesia Deposit Insurance Corporation). Beyond expanding Flip’s embedded finance play, the partnership highlights how neobanks are leveraging collaboration to build trust and extend financial inclusion in Indonesia’s large Muslim population—one of the world’s fastest-growing Islamic finance markets. Read more
SeaBank profit up 18% 📈 Sea Group’s SeaBank Indonesia posted IDR 214B (~USD 13M) profit in H1 2025, an 18% increase YoY. The results reflect successful monetization of its ecosystem (Shopee, Garena) while sustaining operational efficiency, proving that digital banks in Indonesia are not just scaling user numbers but also delivering profitability in an increasingly competitive neobank landscape. Read more
Rising scam losses ⚠️ Public losses from scams in Indonesia reached Rp 4.6T (~USD 280M) in 2025, raising concerns about consumer protection in the digital era. This highlights a dual challenge: scaling financial access while safeguarding trust. Expect tighter oversight and collaboration between fintech players and regulators in fraud prevention. Read more
Komdigi vs Roblox regulation 🎮 Indonesia’s Kominfo Digital (Komdigi) has given Roblox two compliance requirements to avoid a ban, signaling rising scrutiny on global platforms. The case illustrates Indonesia’s tightening stance on content regulation, user safety, and data governance—issues with far-reaching implications for international platforms seeking to operate in the country. Read more
What’s Exciting
Nusatrip IPO on Nasdaq ✈️ Travel platform Nusatrip successfully listed on Nasdaq, making it one of the few Indonesian startups to go public on an international exchange. The IPO signals strong confidence in post-pandemic travel-tech growth and opens the door for more Southeast Asian startups to pursue U.S. listings as a pathway to global visibility and capital access. Read more
