ASEAN Impact Challenge will continue its effort to play a pivotal role in bringing together technology companies such as Grab, with innovators such as Warung Pintar to catalyse partnerships that can bring about greater social impact in the region.

Jakarta, 24 January 2019 — Grab, Southeast Asia’s leading Online-to-Offline (O2O) mobile platform, and Warung Pintar, a micro retail technology startup company in Indonesia, announced today that both companies will be partnering to deepen the social mission to eradicate poverty and promote equality by empowering the grassroots community in Indonesia to move into the digital economy.

This partnership was made possible by ASEAN Impact Challenge (AIC), a regional platform designed to discover innovators and entrepreneurs from Southeast Asia who are accelerating the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In 2018, AIC collaborated with Grab to create the inaugural GrabImpact Award, which aimed to reach out to Southeast Asia’s innovators and assist them in scaling technologies that will solve the challenge of mobility, O2O and payments in the region. After rounds of selection from more than 500 nominations and applications from the 10 Southeast Asian countries, the GrabImpact Award was awarded to Warung Pintar in November last year.

The award fast-tracks Warung Pintar into the Grab Ventures Velocity accelerator and entitles them to US$10,000 worth of Grab services for a year. Grab Ventures announced last year a dedicated US$250 million fund to help Indonesian tech startups scale across the region. Grab Ventures Velocity is a scale-up programme, widely supported throughout Indonesia and Southeast Asia’s technology ecosystem by both public and private sector partners. It provides startup partners with regional market access, mentorship, a proof of concept leveraging Grab Platform and where suitable, strategic investments.

Grab and Warung Pintar formalised their partnership today with an MoU signing session witnessed by Pak Semuel Pangerapan, Director-General of ICT Application, Ministry of Communication & Information Technology, Indonesia; Pak Hari Sungkari, Deputy Chairman of Infrastructure, Badan Ekonomi Kreatif (BEKRAF), Indonesia; and Era Natasha, Programme Lead, ASEAN Impact Challenge.

Era Natasha, Programme Lead, ASEAN Impact Challenge, said, “Tech innovators have the biggest potential to create social impact at scale. Indonesia is home to a rising number of tech startups which place social impact at the core of their entrepreneurial pursuits. We also firmly believe that collaboration is key in ensuring the success of such endeavours. By combining resources and expertise, only then can we accelerate and create a bigger impact. That is why AIC exists. We are here to play a pivotal role in bringing together technology companies such as Grab, with innovators such as Warung Pintar to catalyse partnerships that can bring about greater social impact in the region.”

Chris Yeo, Head, Grab Ventures, said, “Our own journey in providing millions access to essential everyday services has opened up business opportunities for over 8.5 million microentrepreneurs, particularly in Indonesia. Our goal is to empower 100 million microentrepreneurs in the region by 2020. We cannot do this alone. Our impact will be greater and more meaningful when partnering like-minded innovators who share the same goal to improve the quality of lives of over 650 million people in Southeast Asia. We look forward to working hand-in-hand with Warung Pintar to uplift those in need, helping them to develop new skill sets and improving their livelihoods. We want to make sure no one is being left behind, and all Indonesians can benefit from the fast-growing digital economy.”

Ridzki Kramadibrata, Managing Director, Grab Indonesia, said, “We are strongly committed to Indonesia’s long-term socio-economic growth targets and job creation through our ‘Grab 4 Indonesia’ 2020 masterplan. Last August, we have committed to investing US$250million to help Indonesian tech startups grow faster and scale their business beyond Indonesia. Today’s partnership with Warung Pintar reflects our promise to contribute to the growth of Indonesian tech startup ecosystem and talents, and work together to empower more micro-entrepreneurs in the country through technology.”

Agung Bezharie, Co-Founder & CEO of Warung Pintar, said, “Warung Pintar was founded with a mission of transforming micro-businesses for Indonesia’s future economy. The growth of our kiosk owners are our main focus. Within one year since our establishment, we have helped more than 1,000 kiosks to innovate and improve their business. We are also happy to report that in Q3 2018, we saw a significant increase in kiosk owners’ revenue. It was up 37% compared to the previous quarter. The Warung Pintar Team is extremely thrilled with this partnership with Grab. We look forward to leverage Grab’s vast regional footprint, technical and market-specific operational expertise to further expand our offerings to more kiosk owners in Indonesia and beyond.”

2019 & Beyond: Driving Forces for Indonesia’s Impact-Focused Startups

The partnership announcement event also featured a panel discussion titled “2019 & beyond: Driving Forces for Indonesia’s Impact-Focused Startups”. The panel, joined by Chris Yeo, Head of Grab Ventures, Agung Bezharie, Co-Founder & CEO of Warung Pintar, and Era Natasha, Programme Lead, ASEAN Impact Challenge, explored the state of Indonesia’s impact-driven enterprise scene and deliberated on the key factors shaping its progress, such as the availability of impact capital, public-private partnerships and ecosystem enablers.

About ASEAN Impact Challenge & Impact Hub Kuala Lumpur

ASEAN Impact Challenge is a regional programme by Impact Hub Kuala Lumpur to discover innovators and entrepreneurs from Southeast Asia who are accelerating the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through cross-sector partnerships and scaling disruptive innovations. Now in its 5th year, the programme has discovered over 800 innovations from the region, and supported 50 finalist teams and 7 winning innovations to accelerate their impact, whilst mobilising 60+ partnerships from corporations, governments, ecosystem enablers and multilateral agencies.

Impact Hub Kuala Lumpur’s vision is to be a hub for business and people-driven impact in Malaysia and beyond through its 3 pillars of work that aim to deliver wellbeing for people and the planet through Empowered Learners, Impactful Enterprises and Inclusive Cities & Communities. The ASEAN Impact Challenge is a programme managed by Impact Hub Kuala Lumpur under its Impactful Enterprises pillar.

About Impact Hub Jakarta

Impact Hub Jakarta is a co-working and innovation space that exists to support organisations & entrepreneurs creating sustainable positive impact in Indonesia. Impact Hub Jakarta offers programmes, events and an inspiring place to work or collaborate with others in the local community and are passionate about connecting Indonesia to the global entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Impact Hub Jakarta and Impact Hub Kuala Lumpur are both part of a network of collaborative hubs for impact with programmes in 100+ cities and 60 countries around the world that connect and support impact-driven businesses and individuals.

About Grab

Grab is one of the most frequently used Online-to-Offline (O2O) mobile platforms in Southeast Asia, providing the everyday services that matter most to consumers. Commute, eat, deliver shopping – and pay with one e-wallet. Grab believes that every Southeast Asian should benefit from the digital economy, and the company provides access to safe and affordable transport, food and package delivery, mobile payments and financial services. Grab currently offers services in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia. For more information, please visit www.grab.com.

About Warung Pintar

Warung Pintar is a micro retail startup company with a mission of transforming micro businesses for Indonesia’s future economy. Through technology integration in the traditional kiosk, Warung Pintar creates a platform that opens up new opportunities for micro businesses to grow. Warung Pintar closed a US$4 million funding round from Vertex Ventures, Pavilion Capital and Line Ventures in July 2018. In less than one year, Warung Pintar has digitised 1,000 kiosks across the Greater Jakarta area and hopes to scale its impact to other cities in Indonesia and eventually, to the rest of Southeast Asia. For more information, please visit https://warungpintar.co.id.