Endeavor

2016 Endeavor Catalyst Annual Report

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29 SPOTLIGHTS industry Consumer flag selected 2012 jobs 641 Entrepreneur Aldi Haryopratomo SPOTLIGHT ON: Founded in 2009 by Aldi Haryopratomo, Ruma has quickly built a network of agents – or "Rekan Usahas" in Indonesian – who are equipped to buy and sell prepaid minutes for mobile phones in Indonesia's underserved rural communities. Indonesia, with a population of 240 million, boasts mobile pen- etration of roughly 75%, but the country's rural poor face higher per minute costs for mobile usage because of shortcomings in the distribution infrastructure. Setting out to address this problem, Ruma has built a distribution network of active agents, who use their basic mobile phones to sell airtime credit, reaching over one and a half million end users. For Ruma, the sale of prepaid minutes was only the first step – most compa- nies in Indonesia face a broader challenge in collecting payments and distributing information through traditional trade chan- nels. Recognizing this growing opportunity, Ruma has turned its focus to high margin, value-added services that leverage the depth and efficiency of its existing agent network to connect companies with base of the pyramid consum- ers. After making a bit of money, Ruma users usually upgrade to smartphones, where they can use Ruma's Android app to sell credit and accept payments for third parties, such as utility companies or motorbike lenders. Every day, Aldi deploys about 300 employees across Indonesia. On motorbikes, the field oper- ators canvass neighborhoods block by block, recruiting new people and managing the existing network of about 30,000 agents, of which nearly 75% are women. Ruma also heavily recruits from Indonesia's two million independently-owned "mom and pop" stores and equips these shops with the technology, training, and support to provide a range of services including prepaid airtime, utility and loan payments, mobile money services, and insurance. Ruma was selected as an Endeavor Company in 2012 and has shown impressive growth and far-reaching impact to date. In September 2014, Omidyar Network led Ruma's Series B financing round with participa- tion from Endeavor Catalyst. As Aldi expressed, "Our mis- sion – to increase income, dignity, and access for lower income com- munities – is strongly embedded in our business practices." p Ruma Staff

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