Bukalapak

Bukalapak was co-founded in 2010 by Achmad Zaky after he graduated from the Bandung Institute of Technology, together with his friend Nugroho Herucahyono. Bukalapak means "open a market stall" in Indonesian. Zaky's friend, Fajrin Rasyid, joined the duo to manage Bukalapak's finances. The premise of Bukalapak was simple—to digitise transactions for small businesses.

Bukalapak's early phase of development coincided with the popularity of fixie bikes, when many sellers in the community sold various types of bikes and biking accessories. Bukalapak focused on working with these sellers, which led to it being known as a marketplace for bikes at one point. It also contributed to the growth of its user base. The term "pelapak" is commonly used to describe the sellers working with Bukalapak. By 2013, the company recorded an average of IDR 500 million in daily transactions, and was working with more than 80,000 sellers.

In December 2019, Zaky announced his plan to resign, and officially resigned in January 2020, appointing Rachmat Kaimuddin as Bukalapak's new CEO. Herucahyono also resigned as CTO, later starting a venture fund for early-stage startups with Zaky. Rasjid departed in June 2020 to join Telkom Indonesia.

The departure of Bukalapak's entire co-founding team coincided with the laying off of employees. Hundreds of employees from its smart retail, internet of things, and marketing divisions were retrenched as part of a change in strategy. Kaimuddin is credited with recruiting blue chip venture capitalists and for leading the company's IPO in August 2021, which was the largest in Indonesia to date. He resigned four months later after be appointed as Technology and Sustainability Development Special Advisor Deputy at Coordinating Ministry for Maritime and Investments Affairs. Bukalapak's COO, Willix Halim took over as CEO.

Products

Bukalapak has undergone significant development from initially just a marketplace platform to an all-commerce platform serving both online and offline markets. Serving approximately 130 million users and 16.8 million MSME partners, the company has become one of the major players in e-commerce in Indonesia.

In general, Bukalapak's business lines consist of marketplace, online to offline (O2O), business to business (B2B), financial, and logistics. Bukalapak's marketplace provides various types of products, both physical and virtual, covering various categories such as gadgets, hobbies, fashion, daily necessities, and games. Additionally, there are financial services offered including insurance, loan financing, investment in mutual funds and gold, as well as digital banking.

Bukalapak's O2O business, referred to as Bukalapak Partners, enables communities to sell various physical and virtual products alongside basic financial services aimed at individuals without access to banking services (such as money transfers, bill payments, and investments). According to a study conducted by Nielsen in 2022, Bukalapak leads digital penetration among small shops in Indonesia with a percentage reaching 56%.

Furthermore, Bukalapak's financial business includes BMoney and Bukatabungan. BMoney is an online investment application owned by Buka Investasi Bersama. BMoney users can engage in stock trading transactions of various issuers in Indonesia. Since its launch in 2020, BMoney has served nearly 1 million investors with total assets under management reaching more than Rp1 trillion. On the other hand, Bukatabungan is a digital banking application introduced by Bukalapak in collaboration with Standard Chartered, a British-based multinational financial services company.