Highlights:

  • GajiGesa obtains USD 2.5 million in a seed funding
  • The funds will be spent to reach more underbanked Indonesians

GajiGesa, a financial technology start-up, recently raised USD 2.5 million in seed round funding.

The company got candid about the impressive amount raised and shared the expenditure plan using the LinkedIn platform. GajiGesa explains that the fresh funding will be utilized to support the expansion of financial resilience for workers across Indonesia.

Investors that participated in the seed funding include Defy.vc, Next Billion Ventures, GK-Plug and Play Indonesia, Quest Ventures, Alto Partners, and Kanmo Group.

Founded and established by Martyna Malinowska and husband Vidit Agrawal in 2020, Malinowska expressed that she worked with several people who did not have bank accounts while at LenddoEFL, an alternative credit assessment platform.

“At GajiGesa, we firmly believe every hardworking Indonesian deserves financial fairness, security, and dignity,” said Co-founder Martyna Malinowska. She added that the company would give workers the tools they need.

As reported by ProWellTech, GajiGesa, the fintech start-up, has plans to work on services focused on underbanked workers in Indonesia. The report states that about 66% of Indonesia’s 260 million population is “bankless” or “underbanked,” meaning they do not have a bank account or have limited access to financial services like loans. And when they need to borrow funds, they are offered inflated interest rates.

Additionally, Agarwal told the news source that when he was a part of Uber, he learned that the most common reason for borrowing for drivers and others was short-term liquidity problems.

Since the launch in October 2020, GajiGesa has added more than 30 employees to its platform, catering to tens of thousands of workers in total. The company said, “Workers can instantly get wages earned, track earnings, pay bills, purchase prepaid cards, and access financial education resources via an app.”

Need of the hour

Keeping unbanked consumers connected to the sophisticated financial world is becoming trickier as the use of liquid cash has dipped and digital payments are on the rise.

The graph of the US consumers that fall under the unbanked or underbanked category has grown for the first time in several years due to the pandemic that witnessed job losses and lowered incomes.

Statistically, about 8 million were recorded below the poverty line post the federal stimulus aid was curtailed by Congress last May.