(L-R) Tjetak co-founders Raffisal Damanhuri, Anggara Pranaspati, and Hasandi Patriawan
Indonesia-based business packaging specialist startup Tjetak has secured an undisclosed sum in Series A funding, led by Vertex Ventures.
The new round will help Tjetak to serve more businesses by providing custom packaging that is “fit-to-purpose”, it said in a statement.
“We plan to use this funding for three primary allocations, namely the expansion of operational areas and strengthening of human resources, the development of new features, and the improvement of our lab capacity and packaging facilities,” said Co-founder Anggara Pranaspati.
Tjetak was founded in 2018 by three alumni of the University of Indonesia — Pranaspati, Raffisal Damanhuri, and Hasandi Patriawan.
According to Pranaspati, since the outbreak of COVID-19, many Indonesians started SME businesses while enterprises recorded an increase in online-based transactions. The number of SMEs joining e-commerce platforms is also on the rise. As per a Tokopedia data, the number of sellers joining its e-commerce platform has increased by 250 per cent.
These businesses are likely to need professionally-designed packaging to enhance their brand value.
“From our observation, the packaging industry has several pain points. Firstly, the process of getting price quotes requires a long time and complicated specifications. Second, improper packaging design can also cause losses, both in price and final product. Third, the production process tends to not be transparent. Clients are finding it difficult to predict production time and might incur losses when the production is not on-time for any reason,” explained Pranaspati.
Tjetak is seeing an opportunity here by bringing in specialisation in the plastics and paper packaging market, which is estimated to be US$6B-plus.
Tjetak utilises its technology and expertise to create packaging solutions for businesses. For example, during the price request process, Tjetak says its pricing engine technology can calculate prices up to 70 per cent faster than manual methods.
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The firm also offers price efficiencies for 10-15 per cent on various types of packaging with a team of consultants ready to help the clients by brainstorming and developing the best packaging for their products.
Clients can track their real-time production progress on the Tjetak.com platform. They can see the work stages that are currently underway and get regular updates on the estimated production time.
“The packaging industry is highly fragmented and plagued by non-transparency. Using its proprietary platform/engine and data, Tjetak facilitates supply and demand where customers can conduct essential business processes such as showcasing price, design, as well as production and delivery on a single platform with clarity and transparency,” noted Pranaspati.
As of now, the startup offers four main packaging categories, namely corrugated carton box, offset printing packaging, flexible packaging, and rigid boxes.
In the past two years, Tjetak has scaled up its business by serving clients from various industries, such as FMCG segment, F&B, e-commerce, logistics, and pharmacy.
Going forward, Tjetak plans to focus on creating sustainable or more environmentally-friendly packaging to help customers transition to a greener lifestyle.
“We also aim to develop a technology that can build the structure and graphic design needed to meet the various types of packaging sought by clients,” Pranaspati added.
The firm’s clients include PT Eka Boga Inti (Hokben), Ayam Geprek Juara, PT Laniros Dian Pharma, Halodoc, Alfacart, and Tiger Sugar.
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Picture Credit: Tjetak
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