Atma, the rising social job platform powered by community, raised US$ 5 million in an oversubscribed pre-seed round led by AC Ventures with participation from Global Founders Capital. The founders and executives of the region’s leading companies, including GoTo Group, Advance Intelligence Group, Ula, Lummo, Kopi Kenangan, Sampoerna Strategic, MMS Group and Xiaomi also joined the round as strategic angels.
Edy Tan, Co-founder and CEO of Atma, drew inspiration from the social impact that Gojek delivered to 2.5 million drivers in the informal sector based on his experience working closely with driver communities while serving as an Executive at Gojek. He aims to do the same with the wider population by extending into the formal sector, targeting the lower and middle-income segment of the working-age population in Indonesia – individuals earning less than IDR 10 million per month (or approximately USD 700). The collective aspiration for better income opportunities by over 100 million people in this segment serves as the founding motivation for Atma.
The current job marketplace in Indonesia has pervasive inefficiency. Companies experience several weeks of lead time from the moment a company posts an open position until it receives any qualified candidates. Poor recruitment processes from generating leads, screening CVs, and conducting interviews result in candidates having extremely negative experiences or no responses. The same job search and candidate search experiences have not benefited from effective innovation. Atma sees a massive opportunity for product solutions at scale to redefine the existing job search and candidate search experiences.
Edy Tan said, “job seekers in the lower and middle-income segment describe their job search experience as emotionally traumatizing while companies often describe their candidate search experience as a random walk. In Atma, we are building a product to redefine these experiences by overhauling existing dated systems with a first-principle approach. Simplicity, interactivity, sociability, personalization, and gamification will be the core elements of our product.”
Atma aims to build the largest and most engaged community of lower and middle-income job seekers with a shared mission to get better with Atma; better job, better income; better life. “We are entering a tech-enabled, community-driven-X era where everything that we do is influenced by individuals or groups of people. The community provides a sense of identity, belonging, connection, support and growth for job seekers. Through the community, we win hearts; when we win hearts, we win the market. We are truly humbled to have been trusted by reputable investors, best-in-class entrepreneurs, top corporate leaders in Indonesia, and forward-thinking great talents to champion the mission.” Edy Tan continued.
“Over 100 million active workers in the lower to intermediate level income bracket face significant inefficiencies in searching for the right job that matches their skillsets and preferences. Atma is going to help workers find the right jobs more easily as well as provide them with career advancement opportunities by taking additional certifications or training. They also help employers screen for applicants with more relevant qualifications. Atma will redefine the job-seeking experience and help candidates increase their potential,” said Michael Soerijadji, Founder & Managing Partner, AC Ventures.
Atma is founded by Edy Tan, ex-Chief of Driver at Gojek; Chris Gunawan, ex Co-Founder of RestoDepot and Product Executive at Vara; Susan Suhargo, ex Strategic Initiatives at Tencent and Regional Marketing at Gojek; Tim Young, ex Investor at Atlas Asset Management and Fixed Income Trader at HSBC; and Monica Oudang, Chairperson of YABB – GoTo Foundation and ex CHRO of Gojek who serves as an advisor.
With the new funding, Atma plans to further enhance its product, execute a go-to-market strategy, and expand the team (expected to be 100 by year-end).
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AC Ventures is a leading venture capital firm investing in early-stage startups focused on Southeast Asia. We are a generational partner to founders driving positive societal change and economic impact in Indonesia and beyond.