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Sibom Sinha, Bunker CEO and Co-Founder
trench
The promise of data analytics technology is to unlock insights and value hidden beneath the surface.And to a corporate finance department, is there anything more comprehensible than thousands of lines of transactions recorded in a general ledger? trenchis a Singapore-based analytics start-up looking to accelerate its growth, today announced the completion of a £5 million seed funding round.
Bunker’s inspiration came from the COVID-19 crisis, explains co-founder and CEO Shivom Sinha. “I worked in the finance department of a logistics company, and when the pandemic hit, we had to completely redesign our strategy,” he recalls. “But it was really hard to do because it was a very arduous process to dig deep into the financial data.”
It may sound surprising, but if there is a department at the top of a company’s numbers, it is definitely the finance department. But, Sinha said, in modern companies the details of financial performance and arrangements are obscured by thousands of transaction data ledgers, and it takes painstaking manual work to actually dig into the data. “It can be a daunting process and it’s easy to lose track of the story,” he says.
Bunker’s solution is a cloud-based software application that connects to a client’s existing financial systems and enterprise resource planning platforms. It was built with the help of Jibrilia Alamsjah, co-founder and CEO of Proyek Beta, which Bunker acquired at launch.
Once the app is up and running, it examines the company’s financial data to create dashboards and reports, allowing strategic leaders to really understand what’s happening at the transaction level. We can also make bespoke requests to analyze specific issues or pain points. For example, one client used the software to identify about 50 vendors who currently require payment within 30 days. He was then able to reach out to each customer and negotiate an extension of up to 60 days to support cash flow.
“Our goal is to squeeze out all the data in the system,” adds Sinha. “We want to do whatever it takes.” Bunker customers typically see at least a 10% reduction in operating expenses once they start using the software, he suggests.
That’s a pretty big claim, but Bunker was able to quickly gain customers. The company began pitching the software to medium-sized companies in Asia Pacific in the third quarter of last year and has signed up about 40 customers so far.
The appeal, Sinha says, is that Bunker helps companies fill skill gaps. “Financial leaders don’t necessarily understand the basics of accounting, but accountants often don’t understand how to use those numbers to tell the story of their business,” he says. “Additionally, building useful software solutions requires considerable technical data engineering expertise.”
Sinha believes a simple user experience is essential for customer traction. Bunker says its system can be deployed in days and can be learned by business leaders in minutes. This is important because CEOs and CFOs tend to be the primary users when software is first introduced, he says.
Investors have been interested in the business since its inception and have provided pre-seed funding to get the business off the ground. Investors including Alpha JWC, January Capital, Northstar Group, GFC, Money Forward and a number of angels have participated in this latest seed funding round.
Alpha JWC partner Eko Kurniadi said the platform will be particularly resonating for companies trying to navigate economic volatility and upheaval amid continued macro uncertainty.
“Now is the time to focus on a bottom-up approach and give companies full visibility and control over their finances,” says Kurniadi. “Bunker will be a vital tool for businesses to make better-informed decisions. The platform easily provides a comprehensive financial snapshot so finance teams can spend their time where their expertise is needed, rather than time-consuming mundane tasks.”
The funding will allow Banker to build a full-fledged go-to-market team, with Sinha initially focusing on targeting companies across the Southeast Asian region. “This is a borderless product,” he points out, and expansion into other international markets is also part of the medium- to long-term plans.
Some of the funding will be used for further product development, and Bunker is also keen to add sophistication to its software to target very large enterprises as well as medium-sized businesses, which currently make up the majority of its customers.