Bukalapak facts for kids
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Trade name
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Bukalapak |
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| Public company (Perseroan terbatas) | |
| Traded as | IDX: BUKA |
| Industry | Technology |
| Founded | 10 January 2010 |
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| Headquarters |
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Indonesia
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Key people
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| Revenue |  Rp1,9 triliun (2021) |
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Number of employees
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2.962 (2022) |
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PT Bukalapak.com Tbk, known as Bukalapak, is a big Indonesian company that helps people buy and sell things online. It started in 2010 as a place for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) to sell their products.
Bukalapak later helped traditional small family shops, called warungs in Indonesia, to use digital tools. Today, about 25% of Indonesian warungs work with Bukalapak through its Mitra program.
As of 2021, Bukalapak has over 100 million users and seven million partners. It handles more than two million transactions every day. It is one of Indonesia's largest e-commerce companies. It was also the fourth startup in Indonesia to become a "unicorn," which means it reached a value of over one billion US dollars.
In 2021, Bukalapak offered its shares to the public for the first time (this is called an initial public offering or IPO). It raised about US$1.5 billion, which was the largest IPO in Indonesia at that time.
Contents
History of Bukalapak
Bukalapak was started in 2010 by Achmad Zaky and his friend Nugroho Herucahyono. Zaky had just finished studying at the Bandung Institute of Technology. The name "Bukalapak" means "open a market stall" in Indonesian. Zaky's friend, Fajrin Rasyid, later joined them to manage the company's money. Their main idea was to help small businesses handle their sales and payments online.
In its early days, Bukalapak became very popular for selling fixie bikes and bike accessories. Many sellers used the platform for this, and it helped Bukalapak grow its number of users. The sellers who work with Bukalapak are often called "pelapak." By 2013, the company was handling about IDR 500 million (around US$32,000) in sales every day. It was working with more than 80,000 sellers.
In December 2019, Achmad Zaky announced he would step down as CEO. He officially left in January 2020, and Rachmat Kaimuddin became the new CEO. Nugroho Herucahyono, the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, also left. Fajrin Rasyid left in June 2020 to join another company.
After the founders left, Bukalapak changed its business strategy. It let go of some employees from certain departments. Rachmat Kaimuddin helped the company prepare for its big IPO in August 2021. He resigned four months later to take on a special advisor role in the government. Willix Halim, who was the Chief Operating Officer, then became the new CEO.
Bukalapak's Products and Services
Bukalapak has grown a lot since it started as just an online marketplace. Now, it offers many services for both online and offline shopping. It serves about 130 million users and 16.8 million small and medium business partners. This makes it one of the biggest e-commerce companies in Indonesia.
Bukalapak's main services include:
- Marketplace: This is where you can buy and sell many different products. These include things like gadgets, fashion, daily needs, and even games.
- Online to Offline (O2O): This part of the business is called Bukalapak Partners. It helps local shops and communities sell various products, both physical and digital. It also offers basic financial services, like money transfers and bill payments, for people who don't have bank accounts. A study in 2022 showed that Bukalapak is used by 56% of small shops in Indonesia for digital services.
- Financial Services: Bukalapak offers services like BMoney and Bukatabungan.
- BMoney is an app for online investing. Users can buy and sell stocks of different companies in Indonesia. Since it started in 2020, BMoney has helped almost 1 million investors.
- Bukatabungan is a digital banking app. Bukalapak created this app with Standard Chartered, a big international financial company.
- Logistics: This helps with sending and receiving packages.
- BukaSend started in 2019. It lets Bukalapak partners become shipping agents. You can use this service through the Bukalapak app to send packages without going to a shipping office.
- BukaGudang was launched in 2020. It's a service that helps sellers manage their products. It includes storing goods in warehouses, packing them, and sending them to customers.
Shift to Virtual Products
In March 2025, Bukalapak announced a big change. It decided to stop selling physical products. Instead, it will focus on selling virtual goods and services. This includes things like vouchers, gaming credits, and financial services. This move helps the company focus more on its digital services.
Bukalapak's Funding
Bukalapak had a tough start, but it got its first funding in June 2011. A Japanese investor named Takeshi Ebihara invested IDR 2 billion (about US$130,000) in the company.
In February 2014, a large Indonesian company called Emtek also invested in Bukalapak. Emtek's financial reports in 2015 showed that Bukalapak received a total of IDR 439 billion (about US$28 million) from Emtek. By July 2020, Emtek owned 35.17% of Bukalapak's shares, making it the largest shareholder. Bukalapak also received investments from other companies like Aucfan, IREP, 500 Startups, and GREE Ventures.
In January 2019, Bukalapak announced that it had received funding from Mirae-Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund. This is a joint company between two South Korean companies, Mirae Financial Group and Naver. In November 2020, Microsoft invested US$100 million in Bukalapak. As part of this deal, Bukalapak agreed to use Microsoft Azure for its cloud services.
By June 2022, about two-thirds of Bukalapak's income came from its partner companies. The rest came from its e-commerce business. That month, the company also shared that it expected its revenue to increase by over 60%.
Leadership Team
| Role | Appointed |
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| CEO | Willix Halim |
| CFO | Natalia Firmansyah |
| Director | Victor Lesmana |
Awards and Recognition
Bukalapak has received many awards for its work:
- Fortune's Change the World 2022 – Fortune
- Glints Best Employers Award 2022 – Glints
- Best Company to Work For 2022 – HR Asia Awards
- Alibaba Cloud Awards 2022 – Alibaba Cloud
- Best Company to Work For 2021 – HR Asia Awards
- UN Women 2020 Asia-Pacific Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs) Awards – Gender Responsive Marketplace – UN Women
- Best Company to Work For 2020 – HR Asia Awards
- Perusahaan dengan Tingkat Pertumbuhan Tertinggi ke-14 di Asia Pasifik dan ke-2 di Indonesia 2020 (14th Highest Growth Company in Asia Pacific and 2nd in Indonesia)
- CNBC Indonesia Award 2019 – The Best E-Commerce 2019 – CNBC Indonesia
- Best Company to Work For 2019 – HR Asia Awards
- The Best Contact Center Indonesia 2019 – Indonesia Contact Center Association
- Penghargaan Achmad Bakrie XVI 2018 – Teknologi dan Kewirausahaan (Achmad Bakrie Award for Technology and Entrepreneurship)
- Youtube Pulse 2018 – Best Ads – Nego Cincai
- The Best Contact Center Indonesia 2018 – Indonesia Contact Center Association
- Citra Pariwara 2017 – Bronze – Digital Viral and Email Marketing
- Citra Pariwara 2017 – Silver – Digital Integrated Campaign
- Tangrams Awards – E-Commerce Asia Pacific
- PR Awards Marketing Magazine Southeast Asia 2017 – Best PR-led Integrated Communications & Best Direct-to-Consumer PR Campaign
- PR Indonesia Awards 2017 – Bronze – Program PR Sub Kategori Digital PR
- Millward Brown – Top 50 Most Valuable Indonesia Brands 2016
See also
- List of unicorn startup companies
