SC Ventures, the innovation, fintech investment and ventures arm of Standard Chartered, has launched a new invoicing and billing platform dubbed ‘Labamu’, in a move to increase the prosperity of small businesses across the Asia Pacific (APAC) markets, starting with Indonesia.
Through the new platform, Labamu, SC Ventures hopes to empower SMEs across APAC to accelerate their growth. SMEs across Southeast Asia represent 90 per cent of all companies and 80 per cent of all employment – with a market size of $2.5trillion.
SC Ventures is aiming to make it easier for SMEs to increase sales through omnichannel – physical and digital – marketplaces. Labamu will also look to increase operational efficiency for SMEs by offering digital billing, catalogue, stock and material management, plus customer relationship management and reporting.
Emmanuel Van De Geer, CEO of Labamu
“Labamu believes that every small business contributes to shared economic prosperity and we want to empower them,” explained Labamu’s CEO, Emmanuel Van De Geer. “The platform stands out because we seamlessly integrate financial services into our platform. Merchants using Labamu can get invoice and bill payments directly deposited to their bank accounts.”
By offering access to financial services such as embedded banking and operating account, and later procurement and working capital financing, Labamu also looks to help accelerate SME growth in the region.
Supporting female entrepreneurs
Through its ‘Wanita Tumbuh Bersama’ campaign, which actively promotes female empowerment in the SME sector, Labamu has also trained over 7,500 business owners in essential business management practices.
Kartini, the owner of Warung Al-Matiinu, a small business that sells traditional snacks consumed by Betawi people, an indigenous group native to Jakarta, is one of the women who have received support from the campaign. Prior to attending Labamu’s workshop Kartini’s traditional Betawi snack sales were limited to Indonesia.
The Labamu campaign offers practical training and expert guidance, through sessions hosted by the likes of Silvia Winsen, vice president of business development at PT Labamu Sejahtera Indonesia, who has already shared strategies for SMEs to meet export standards.
“SMEs are still suffering from lack of access,” added Alex Manson, CEO of SC Ventures. “During incubation, we could already see Labamu’s potential — the platform earned the trust of over 80,000 small business owners.”
The post SC Ventures Launches Invoicing and Billing Platform, Labamu, to Help APAC SMEs Accelerate Growth appeared first on The Fintech Times.
