The Venture Codex

Participated · Series A · Nov 2021

GajiGesa provides earned wage access (EWA) to underbanked Indonesian workers and offers an employer app, GajiTim, for integrated employee management. Its flagship EWA product lets workers withdraw wages immediately to increase liquidity and reduce reliance on predatory lenders. GajiTim supports management of part-time, full-time and gig workers and the company touts it as Southeast Asia’s first and largest integrated employee management solution. GajiGesa works with more than 120 companies across sectors and says GajiTim has over 200,000 users; a company survey found over 80% of employees stopped using informal lenders and 40% are using other financial services on the platform. The team has doubled in size over six months to more than 50 employees. The startup raised $6.6M in a pre-Series A and previously closed a $2.5M seed round; it plans to use the latest funding for product development, expansion across Indonesia and entry into new Southeast Asian markets. GajiGesa offers Earned Wage Access (EWA) and other worker-focused financial services via an app that integrates with employers' HR and payroll systems. Through the app, workers can access earned wages immediately, track earnings, pay bills, buy prepaid cards and access financial education resources. The company does not charge interest or require collateral because users are pre-approved by their employers; employers can choose to charge fees or offer the service as a benefit and gain workforce analytics. Since launching in October 2020, GajiGesa has added more than 30 employers and serves tens of thousands of workers. Founders Vidit Agrawal and Martyna Malinowska bring fintech and operational experience from Uber, Stripe, Standard Chartered’s SC Ventures and LenddoEFL. The startup says demand for its EWA solution has been "insatiable" during COVID-19 and positions the platform to support employers and employees long-term; it recently completed a seed fundraising round.

Participated · Seed · Aug 2021

RaRa Delivery operates a proprietary real-time batching engine that groups 2–15 orders and optimizes routes using traffic data so drivers can complete multiple deliveries per trip. Its product suite includes a seller portal, real-time order tracking, a customer chatbot and a cash-on-delivery reconciliation tool that generates deposit codes for convenience stores. The company focuses on same-day deliveries across food, grocery, healthcare and e-commerce verticals, with batch completion times of roughly two to six hours depending on service level. Launched in 2019, it currently operates in Greater Jakarta and is preparing to expand into five other Indonesian cities this year. Daily order volume has grown 15x over the past year, driven in part by increased demand for grocery and medical deliveries during the pandemic. RaRa plans to expand across Tier 1 Indonesian cities, then smaller cities to cover all of Indonesia within a couple of years and subsequently enter other countries with minimal localization.

Participated · Series A · Jun 2019

Funderbeam is a Tallinn, Estonia–based platform that provides infrastructure for investor networks, accelerators and venture investors to manage syndicated investments, post-investment flows and cross-border secondary transactions. The company holds investment firm licences in the UK, Estonia (covering the EEA) and Singapore and was designated a Recognised Market Operator by MAS in September 2019, enabling it to offer a fully regulated exchange service worldwide. Led by founder and CEO Kaidi Ruusalepp, Funderbeam’s core product focuses on solving liquidity frictions in angel and venture markets. After the announced transaction with VentureWave, the company will expand to serve institutional clients including VC funds, family offices, brokers and investment banks. The platform combines trading and investment management features to facilitate secondary transactions across borders. No operating metrics were disclosed in the article. Funderbeam operates a secondary marketplace that enables trading of private-company shares to provide liquidity for accelerators, angel investors, and early employees. The platform pairs digital infrastructure with a legal framework and licensing to support global trading. Founded in 2013 by Kaidi Ruusalepp and Urmas Peiker, the company is building out product, compliance, and business departments to scale internationally. At the end of March Funderbeam closed a Tim Draper‑led $4 million financing round to drive platform development. As part of its growth strategy it is bringing institutional partners on board to accelerate deal flow and market reach. A recent partnership with Tallinn‑based B2B accelerator Startup Wise Guys is intended to funnel a large set of early-stage companies onto Funderbeam’s marketplace. Funderbeam operates an information and secondary trading marketplace that provides access and liquidity to growth-stage investments. The platform uses blockchain technology to power its ledger and applies a curated model where founders choose who can invest, supported by due diligence and lead-investor ambassadors. To date it has listed 37 high-growth portfolio companies, onboarded more than 10,000 verified investors across 119 countries, and seen $2.2 million of shares exchange hands on its secondary marketplace. Funderbeam recently launched in Scandinavia and the U.K. and has an office in Singapore as it targets further expansion into Asia and continental Europe. The company says it will use the Series A proceeds to develop a stronger secondary market offering and support growth in key markets starting from Singapore. Co-founder Urmas Peiker will leave to focus on capital markets in developing markets; Kaidi Ruusalepp is identified as the company's founder. Funderbeam is a Tallinn, Estonia–based stock exchange for startups that uses blockchain to tokenize investments. Founded in 2013 by Kaidi Ruusalepp and Urmas Peiker, it lets anyone invest and trade in growth companies worldwide. Each investment is tokenized, with tokens representing an owner’s rights in an investment syndicate, allowing companies to raise rounds privately or publicly while adding only one investor to their cap table. The platform has raised over €5m via its own platform and has secured $7.3M in funding to date from a global network of investors in nearly 100 countries. Notable backers named in reporting include Jaan Tallinn, Tim Draper and Taizo Son. Funderbeam works with early-stage companies worldwide to help them access growth capital and provide immediate liquidity to investors. Funderbeam is building a blockchain-based funding and trading engine aimed at creating a stock-exchange-like market for startups. The platform combines a research tool (launched in 2013) with an investment platform that enables primary funding and nascent secondary trading of private-company stakes. Its trading feature lets shareholders sell stakes either originally funded via the platform or those they have permission to trade, with an emphasis on cross-border liquidity and transparency. Kaidi Ruusalepp, formerly CEO of the Nasdaq Tallinn exchange, leads the company and frames blockchain as a transparency and trust layer for securities trading. To advance the vision, Funderbeam has secured external capital and backing from strategic and notable investors. Financially, the company has just raised $2.6 million in further funding to develop its platform and trading capabilities.