Covering Disruptive Technology Powering Business in The Digital Age

GRABIMPACT Award, the inaugural award from Grab for the region’s impact-focused tech entrepreneurs, was awarded to Warung Pintar, a social tech venture from Indonesia that provides micro and small business owners access to digital tools powered by IoT and data analytics through their proprietary Smart Kiosks.

The award fast-tracks Warung Pintar into the Grab Ventures Velocity accelerator and entitles them to US$10,000 worth of Grab services for a year.

“Asean Impact Challenge was created to discover entrepreneurs from Southeast Asia accelerating the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through cross-sector partnership and disruptive innovations.

“For the first time this year, we partnered up with Grab to create the GrabImpact Award with the objective to help more innovators in Southeast Asia accelerate technological developments that will solve challenges related to poverty reduction and financial inclusion,” said Dr Shariha Khalid Erichsen, board member of Impact Hub KL.

“Our own journey in providing millions access to essential everyday services has shown us the possibilities that the region’s talent has to offer. We have always had the understanding and humility to recognise that we cannot be the best in everything. So we work with partners who are the best in what they do – combine their expertise with what we are good at, and empower them. This is what Grab, through its Grab Ventures arm, will bring into the GrabImpact Award,” said Chris Yeo, regional head of Grab Ventures.

Warung Pintar, which recently closed a US$4 million funding round from Vertex Ventures, Pavilion Capital and Line Ventures, was founded upon the mission to close the massive income gap by offering micro and small business owners equal access to technology and innovations.

In less than one year, Warung Pintar has digitised 1,000 kiosks across the Greater Jakarta area.

“We are extremely delighted to win the GrabImpact Award. We look forward to working with Grab in deepening our mission to eradicate poverty and reduce inequality by offering equal entrepreneurship opportunity to those in need,” said Riefhano Patonangi, head of Programme and Research at Warung Pintar.

“We look forward to contribute to Warung Pintar’s further expansion through our vast regional footprint, technical and market-specific operational expertise, and varied ecosystem of products, network of drivers, delivery partners and merchants,” Yeo added.

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