Pintalña, an Indonesian employment platform that goes beyond job matching by providing financial services along with full-time and side gig opportunities, said it has raised a $16.7 million Series A round.
The funding was led by Square Peg, with participation from existing investors Vertex Venture Southeast Asia & India and East Ventures.
Ghirish Pokardas, Nelly Nurmalasari and Henry Hendrawan founded Pintarnya in 2022, addressing two of the biggest challenges Indonesians face every day.
“Traditionally, Indonesian mass workers find jobs offline through job fairs and word of mouth, and employers are not buried in paper applications or candidates. For borrowing, their options are limited to family/friends or marauders with tough collection practices.” “We provide workers with safer, healthier lending options to digitalize job matching with AI and make employment faster. This is what they can reasonably afford instead of pushing debt deeper.”
Approximately 59% of Indonesia’s 150 million labor force is employed in the informal sector, highlighting the difficulties these workers encounter when accessing formal financial services, as they lack verifiable income and formal employment documents.
Pintarnya is tackling this challenge by partnering with asset-backed lenders to provide secure loans using collateral such as gold, electronics and vehicles, Hendrawan added.
Since seed funding in 2022, the platform currently serves more than 10 million job seekers and 40,000 employers nationwide. That revenue has risen nearly five times the previous year, and it expects to reach a breakthrough by the end of the year, Hendrone noted. Pintarnya mainly serves users between the ages of 21-40, most of whom have high school education or diplomas below the university level. The startup aims to focus on this unserved segment, given the large population of blue-collar and informal workers in Indonesia.
TechCrunch Events
San Francisco
|
October 27th-29th, 2025
“Through the journey of building employment services, we discovered that users needed more than just work. They needed access to financial services that traditional banks couldn’t provide,” says Hendrawan. “We provide workers with safer, healthier lending options to digitalize job matching with AI and make employment faster. This is designing something that they can reasonably afford, rather than pushing debt deeper.”
According to Hendrawan, Indonesia already has job platforms such as Job Street, Calibra and Grint, but primarily caters to the white-collar role that represents a small portion of the workforce. Pintarnya’s platform is specifically designed for blue-collar workers and offers tailored experiences such as quick application options for walk-in interviews, affordable e-learning on related skills, in-app opportunities for supplemental income, and seamless connections with financial services such as loans.
The same trend is evident in the Indonesian fintech sector. This is similarly catering to white-collar or middle-class consumers. Traditional credit scoring models for loans that rely on stable monthly income and bank account activity often leave blue-collar workers overlooked by existing fintech providers, Hendrawan explained.
When asked about which Fintech services are in the most demand, Hendrawan said: “Given the employment situation, lending is the most in demand financial service for today’s Pinternya users. We plan to “graduate” them in microsaving and investment through innovative products with our partners. ”
New funding will allow Pintalña to enhance platform technology and expand its financial services delivery through strategic partnerships. With most Indonesian workers employed in the blue-collar and informal sectors, co-founders have seen considerable growth opportunities in the local market. He is also open to leveraging his extensive experience in managing companies in Southeast Asia to explore regional expansion when the timing is right.
“Our vision is that Pintalña will become a daily companion that enables Indonesians to not only achieve their goals today, but also to plan, grow and upgrade their lives for tomorrow. “We want to be the first stop when someone is looking for a job, where they can help them upgrade their skills and a reliable guide to making financial decisions.”
