The archive · Money & Fintech · Product decision · 2022–2025
Pintarnya bets blue-collar Indonesia wants jobs plus credit: $16.7M Series A
Indonesia jobs platform adds collateral-backed loans for informal workers; 10M users, $16.7M Series A led by Square Peg
Pintarnya
What the business is
An Indonesian employment platform with integrated financial services: AI-assisted job matching, CV creation, and secured loans via lender partners.
Starting capital：US$16.7M Series A (led by Square Peg; Vertex Ventures SEA & India and East Ventures joined)
How it started
Hendrawan, Nurmalasari, and Pokardas founded Pintarnya in 2022 after seeing that most Indonesian mass workers find jobs offline and borrow from family or predatory lenders; ~59% of Indonesia's 150M-strong workforce works informally, without verifiable income.
What happened
The platform grew to 10M+ job-seeker users and 40,000 employers, facilitated 8M+ matches, and saw revenue rise nearly fivefold year-over-year. In August 2025 it closed a US$16.7M Series A led by Square Peg, with 200,000+ users having accessed credit for healthcare, tuition, and inventory.
How it ended up
Live and scaling: expects to reach break-even by end of 2025, targets a 'super app' for Indonesian workers, and is considering regional expansion.
Background
Pintarnya, founded in Jakarta in 2022 by Henry Hendrawan, Nelly Nurmalasari, and Ghirish Pokardas, began as an employment platform that used AI to match Indonesian blue-collar workers with jobs, generate CVs, and auto-apply to vacancies. The founders' bet was that the mass workforce — not white-collar professionals served by JobStreet, Kalibrr, or Glints — was the underserved majority.
While building the employment side, the team discovered users needed money more than job alerts. Their answer was to partner with asset-backed lenders and offer secured loans backed by gold, electronics, or vehicles, since conventional credit scoring fails workers with irregular incomes and thin banking histories. Over 200,000 users have used the channel for healthcare, tuition, and inventory.
In August 2025, Pintarnya raised a US$16.7M Series A led by Square Peg, with Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India and East Ventures participating. The company reported over 10 million job-seeker users, 40,000 employers, more than 8 million matches, and revenue up almost fivefold year-over-year, targeting break-even by end of 2025.
What has to be true
- Blue-collar and informal workers are the majority of Indonesia's workforce yet are ignored by job platforms and fintechs built for salaried professionals.
- Employment data gives Pintarnya a credit channel: a verified job match is evidence of income that banks' scoring models can't see.
- Asset-backed lending lets the company offer loans without relying on unverifiable credit histories.
- An integrated app creates lock-in: job matching, upskilling, side gigs, and loans keep users in one ecosystem.
What can be applied
A wedge product that solves one problem can reveal a second, higher-value one: job-search users asked for loans, and the platform pivoted to embed lending rather than bolt it on later.
Aftermath
As of September 2026, Pintarnya continues to operate as an employment-and-financial-services platform, serving 10M+ users and 40,000+ employers with more than 100,000 vacancies. Its stated next steps are strengthening platform technology, broadening financial offerings toward micro-savings and investments, and eventually expanding beyond Indonesia.
Sources
- Pintarnya raises $16.7M to power jobs and financial services in Indonesia
- Pintarnya Secures US$16.7M Series A to Expand Indonesia's Leading Employment and Financial Services Platform
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