Indonesia-based early wage access (EWA) platform Kini announced that it has raised a US$4.3 million (IDR64 billion) seed funding round led by East Ventures with the participation of Ten13, OurCrowd, K50 Ventures, dan Goodwater Capital.

Interestingly, this is the second portfolio of East Ventures that is working in the EWA vertical, following its investment in wagely in March.

Kini plans to use the new funding to build a new range of HR tech products, expand partnerships, and add HR technology to strengthen its fintech offering through one API.

“We are excited to partner with East Ventures and all of our investors. Their support is crucial in accelerating our mission to create a better life for 99 per cent of workers in Indonesia, especially those who live from paycheck to paycheck,” said Kini Co-Founder & CEO Jordan Fain in a press statement on Thursday, July 7.

Kini was founded in 2021 by Fain and CTO Sidnei Budiman, a veteran in the local fintech industry. Thanks to his experience during his time at Uber, Fain realised that tightening the payment cycle helps improve retention and acquisition. Because of this, he believes that Kini can help in empowering businesses especially in managing large-scale blue-collar workers.

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In Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia, there are millions of underbanked blue-collar workers who live paycheck to paycheck. They have limited access to credit, making them vulnerable to predatory loan practices.

“The need for financial inclusion for Indonesians has become more urgent than before. We believe in Kini’s mission to revolute the way millions of workers manage their finance to achieve greater financial freedom. We are certain that the Kini team will be a valuable partner for many companies in Indonesia,” said East ventures Partner Melisa Irene.

Kini claimed to be able to achieve growth in its monthly transaction volume by 70 per cent with more than 50 companies teaming up with them. Some of its notable users included Ismaya Group, Asaba, DOKU, and several publicly listed companies. These companies are also integrated into their HRIS (Human Resources Information System).

Kini is being run by a team of 10 people.

The EWA business model

Like many other players in the EWA fields, Kini provides an on-demand salary service (EWA) to help employees of partner companies manage their finances. This fast liquidation process enables employees to pay bills and purchase micro-insurance.

Kini also adds other features that are meant to support the works of the HR department, including instant incentive liquidation, discount vouchers, telecommunication, salary services, API integration, integrated HR information, and a time-tracking feature.

Unlike lending fintech platforms that uses interest rates as a revenue stream, EWA uses a different approach. For salary liquidation service, they are charging a flat tariff for a certain nominal, i.e IDR30,000 admin fee for every IDR1.2 million that is liquidated.

Apart from that, as a startup that is targeting the B2B segment, EWA platforms also have other revenue streams, including fees from HR tech platforms, API, and payments.

Also Read: Vietnamese fintech startups Finhay nets US$25M Series B, Anfin bags US$4.8M pre-Series A

VC funding for EWA platforms

Apart from Kini, there is already a number of startups in Indonesia that working on a similar concept, including GajiGesa, wagely, Gigacover, GajiKoin by KoinWorks, Vinmo, Mekari Flex, Halogaji from Halofina, GetPaid, and Gajiku. The majority of these players have already been supported by VC funding.

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The article was written by Marsya Nabila in Bahasa Indonesia for DailySocial. English translation and editing by e27.

Image Credit: Kini

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