The venture company under Ideosource, Gayo Capital, officially announced seed funding for two of its newest portfolios, Alatté Beauty and PasarMIKRO. Gayo Capital is reluctant to mention the exact investment value the two have received. However, Alatté Beauty is said to have secured around $100- $500 thousand, while PasarMIKRO around $500 thousand – $1 million.
Gayo Capital’s Co-founder & Managing Partner, Ishara Yusdian said the two portfolios are in line with the company’s vision to provide “impact investment”. He also prepared a business roadmap to encourage future business growth for both of them.
“We are impact investors. Therefore, we incubate first, give mentoring and pre-seed rounds before the product launches. Once launched, we entered as investors for the seed round,” Ishara said in an interview with DailySocial.
Thus, Gayo Capital has nine portfolios now, including in the agricultural segment (Lampung Cocoa Farmers, Inacom, Tunas Farm, PasarMIKRO, AGRetail & AGLogistics), waste management (WLabku, DAUR), and lifestyle (Alatté Beauty and Foom).
Alatté Beauty’s development
Throughout 2020, Gayo Capital saw a trend of increasing sales of beauty products during the pandemic. Moreover, his team began to conduct various researches in Q2 2020 and found that the average local cosmetic brand is still using the retail business model. In order to invest in this sector, Ishara said he wanted to find a business model that could have a broad impact.
He said, Alatté met Gayo Capital’s criteria. With a reseller-based business model, he believes Alatté can have a broad impact, especially for MSMEs in Indonesia. In contrast to most retail cosmetic brands, which are considered to require large capital to become a reseller. In fact, there is no assistance regarding selling, engagement, and transformation to digital selling.
“After our exploration, we found that Alatté has a different model from other brands, partnering with individuals and MSMEs. Think about resellers, such as the Oriflame [model]. Therefore, Alatté prepared the whole thing, the reseller will make sales and they will receive coaching, starting from the framework, marketing, and going to the market. Indirectly, Alatté is one of the medium to increase the GDP contribution from MSMEs,” he explained.
Ishara said, Alatté has achieved organic growth. Moreover, Alatté’s focus in 2021 is to fully increase sales figures through digital platforms, such as Tokopedia and Shopee. In 2022, Alatté will expand to offline stores, such as Watson, Sephora, Sociolla, and Metro.
Next, in the following year, then Alatté will enter into innovation development. One of the use cases that is currently being prepared is the development of face recognition to provide a virtual experience for buyers of Alatté cosmetic products.
“it’s currently on trial. But, we’ll be able to launch it if we have a significant number we can get. Therefore, it depends on the reseller in the area. Alatté’s equity value is different from other brands. The sales forecast seems very close . For example, when the equity value has been built, we want to make Alatté the first local cosmetics brand to be IPO,” he said.
Farmer’s financing facility
Next, the PasarMIKRO, this platform is prepared to synergize with existing portfolios in agriculture, Lampung Cocoa Farmers (PKL) and Inacom. Ishara revealed, PasarMIKRO has provided financing facilities to more than 50 farmers. This year, his team targets to provide access to finance to 200 farmers in Indonesia.
In a general note, PasarMIKRO provides financing facilities for upstream farmers with risk profiling in accordance with POJK. Ishara assessed that farmers and ranchers in the regions have the ability to supply their crops to large retailers, such as Carrefour and Giant. However, this is considered difficult without the help of middlemen.
“PasarMIKRO has a business model similar to Investree P2P, only it is channeled into the captive market, including farmers and breeders. PasarMIKRO also provides facilities where farmers can trade their crops to agri food companies, such as Japfa Comfeed,” he added.
Target in 2021
During this year, Gayo Capital is preparing some other plans. Ishara revealed that his team would collaborate with the International Design School (IDS) and state-owned subsidiary PT INTI to prepare digital-based learning content. He said, the pre-employment market potential is huge, especially after Lebaran.
As a general note, IDS is owned by Andi Boediman, who is also a Managing Partner at Ideosource. Gayo Capital will announce a new portfolio in the third quarter, a Singapore-based insurtech platform, Ocktolife.
In addition, the company will launch three incubation programs this year. First, Start Camp Asia which aims to consolidate and integrate the MICRO Market with the existing portfolio. Second, Codiac for the integration and collaboration of AGRetail & AGLogistics with external parties.
Third, PILAR, the program that prepares leadership assistance for its portfolio, most of which are from agricultural verticals. “I think we have to have standards for those running the company. Currently, we are still providing one by one assistance,” he added.
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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian