\A Landmark Round in Southeast Asia’s Workforce Tech

Pintarnya has successfully raised $16.7 million in a Series A round, backed by Square Peg, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India, and East Ventures. The fresh funding reflects investor confidence in the company’s mission to build a more equitable and accessible employment ecosystem for Indonesia’s underserved workers.

Founded by Nelly Nurmalasari, Henry Hendrawan, and Ghirish Pokardas, Pintarnya is tackling a critical problem in emerging markets: how to connect millions of informal and blue-collar workers with job opportunities, financial tools, and upward mobility in a fast-digitizing economy.

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The Challenge: Employment Gaps in Indonesia

Indonesia’s workforce exceeds 140 million people, with a majority employed in informal or semi-formal sectors. For this massive demographic, finding work is often:

• Fragmented  - Jobs are scattered across word-of-mouth networks or offline bulletin boards.
  
• Opaque  - Workers lack transparency on pay, security, or career progression.
  
• Unbanked & underfinanced  - Many workers remain excluded from formal financial systems, making credit or benefits inaccessible.
  
• Vulnerable  - Without consistent income streams, financial shocks push workers into cycles of debt or instability.
  

While digital marketplaces and gig platforms have gained traction, few are built with the worker-first design needed to address the specific realities of Southeast Asia’s employment market.

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Pintarnya’s Solution: A Worker-First Super App

Pintarnya positions itself not just as a job platform, but as a super app for workers, combining employment opportunities with financial services.

Key features of Pintarnya’s model include:

• Job matching: Connecting blue- and grey-collar workers with employers at scale through digital channels.
  
• Financial access: Offering credit, microloans, and financial literacy tools to historically underserved segments.
  
• Holistic support: Building a pathway for workers to not only find jobs but also stabilize and grow financially.
  
• Employer value: Helping companies access a more reliable, pre-vetted workforce pool.
  

By addressing both sides of the labor equation  - workers and employers  - Pintarnya is creating a flywheel of inclusion and opportunity.

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Why Investors Are Betting Big

The involvement of Square Peg, Vertex Ventures SE Asia & India, and East Ventures sends a clear message: the intersection of fintech and workforce platforms in Southeast Asia is heating up.

Reasons for investor conviction include:

1. Massive TAM: Indonesia’s informal workforce alone numbers in the tens of millions  - an untapped market that dwarfs many traditional SaaS segments.
   
2. Fintech x Employment flywheel: By pairing financial access with employment opportunities, Pintarnya can capture recurring engagement beyond job placement.
   
3. Founder-market fit: Co-founders bring deep experience in tech, operations, and finance, creating the right mix to tackle such a complex challenge.
   
4. Regional scalability: A successful model in Indonesia can extend across other Southeast Asian markets with similar worker dynamics.
   

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Founder Insight: Building for the Majority, Not the Minority

A critical insight driving Pintarnya is the recognition that most digital platforms focus on white-collar or gig workers in urban centers. By contrast, Pintarnya is focusing on the majority of the workforce  - those in service, retail, logistics, and informal trades.

This reframing  - “don’t just build for the digitally savvy top 10%, build for the overlooked 90%”  - positions Pintarnya as a category creator in employment inclusion tech.

For other founders, the lesson is clear: there’s enormous opportunity in building solutions for underserved majorities rather than overserved niches.

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The Road Ahead: Scaling Impact with Series A

The $16.7 million raise provides the capital Pintarnya needs to accelerate its mission. Core priorities include:

1. Product expansion: Adding deeper financial services, insurance, and skilling pathways.
   
2. Geographic growth: Expanding beyond Tier 1 cities into regional hubs across Indonesia.
   
3. Employer partnerships: Scaling relationships with SMEs and large enterprises to ensure consistent demand.
   
4. Technology infrastructure: Leveraging AI for smarter job matching and risk assessment in financial products.
   

This roadmap reflects not just scaling a product, but scaling impact  - a chance to uplift millions of workers who have historically been excluded from digital opportunity.

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Market Outlook: The Convergence of Work and Fintech in SEA

The workforce technology space in Southeast Asia is set to explode. Consider these trends:

• The gig economy in Southeast Asia is projected to reach $16 billion by 2025 (Google/Temasek e-Conomy SEA report).
  
• Over 60% of Indonesia’s adult population remains unbanked or underbanked (World Bank), creating huge demand for integrated fintech solutions.
  
• Digital platforms are increasingly being judged on their ability to deliver real economic impact, not just transactions.
  

By sitting at the intersection of employment and financial inclusion, Pintarnya is tapping into one of the most critical structural opportunities in Southeast Asia’s digital economy.

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Final Thoughts

Pintarnya’s $16.7 million Series A is more than a growth milestone  - it’s a signal that the future of work in Southeast Asia must be inclusive, worker-first, and financially enabling.

For other founders, the playbook here is instructive:

• Target underserved majorities. Huge markets live in the informal and semi-formal economy.
  
• Pair core needs with financial services. Employment without financial stability doesn’t solve the bigger problem.
  
• Think regional from day one. What works in Indonesia can often scale across Southeast Asia’s similar worker ecosystems.
  

By aligning strong founder insight with structural tailwinds, Pintarnya is well-positioned to become a defining platform in the region’s workforce transformation.