CARDS, an Indonesia-based innovative school management SaaS platform, on Thursday announced an undisclosed seed funding led by Katha VC, a US venture capital firm focused on fintech startups.
DS/X Venture and EduSpaze, a prominent edtech accelerator in Southeast Asia, also joined the round.
With the new funding, CARDS plans to expand its reach and further develop its product offerings, hire a regional sales team, strengthen after-sales support, and develop new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) to assist school staff.
Additionally, CARDS is open to forming strategic partnerships to increase its market penetration and create a broader impact, as it aligns with its mission to become the leading digital transformation solution for the education sector in Indonesia and surrounding regions.
Founded by Muh Arif Mahfudin and Hari Yuliawan in 2021, CARDS offers a comprehensive platform to digitise various operational functions of schools, such as administration, finance, and digital payments.
The company’s mission is to empower educational institutions, particularly those in tier 2 and tier 3 cities in Indonesia, to enhance efficiency and provide a better learning experience for students. This area is still relatively lagging in technology ownership compared with schools in tier 1 cities.
“We are building a new ecosystem in schools, not just providing partial solutions to problems. We address the most crucial aspect, which is the operational system, and then develop and transform other areas such as cashless transactions in school canteens, more effective teaching and learning processes, attendance systems, and modernised financial reporting and school fee payments,” stated Muh Arif Mahfudin, CEO of CARDS.
CARDS has achieved rapid growth since its launch, attracting over 500 schools across Indonesia, including private, public, and Islamic boarding school institutions to manage various operational aspects. Its platform focus on user-friendliness, efficiency, and customer satisfaction has also led it to achieve profitability in a short time, as the company claimed, demonstrating the effectiveness and sustainability of its solutions.