To expand across Indonesia, Cakap received $10 M in Series B funding round

Cakap, an Indonesian edtech platform, has secured $10 million in an oversubscribed Series B round led by Centauri Fund, a joint investment vehicle of MDI Ventures of Telkom Indonesia and KB Investment of Korea.

Heritas Capital, Singapore-based private equity and venture capital firm, is also a co-lead on the transaction, along with KB Investment and other unidentified investors.

The funding comes a year after Cakap closed a $3 million Series A+ round in the United States in December 2020.

Cakap will use the new funds to extend its certified course offerings as well as grow its market to provide better access to high-quality education throughout the archipelago.

A portion of the funding will be used to develop Cakap’s technologies, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, in order to provide each student with a more customised learning trip through adaptive learning.

Cakap, which was founded in 2013, creates online learning programmes that allow students and professional teachers to connect in two-way video calls and text dialogues.

The company has also expanded its service to include self-paced learning and certification courses that include sequential multimedia learning, tests, and LIVE Class ad discussions, allowing students to obtain a certification for new job-specific abilities at their own leisure.

The company claims to have witnessed tremendous growth and profitability in the previous two years, boosted by the pandemic’s severe impact on the schooling sector.

Cakap is stated to provide its adult and child pupils with a wide range of skilled teachers both locally and internationally, with over 1,000 teachers across the regions.

The company claims to have gained 1.5 million students, with a 500% year-over-year increase in active students and over 1 million app downloads.

Despite the comeback of traditional institutions, the Indonesian edutech industry is optimistic, since hybrid learning has shown to be a good supplement to in-person instruction.

Furthermore, the archipelago features one of the world’s largest educational systems, with over three million instructors working in 300,000 schools. This offers an ideal environment for edtech businesses to prosper, with financing in this area doubling in 2019.

Ruangguru, Zenius, CoLearn, and HarukaEdu, all leading edutech businesses in the sector, have scored significant transactions this year.