Itβs Thursday, and today weβre focusing on bukaPO, an Indonesian culinary marketplace that recently closed a seed funding round led by Bali Investment Club and elea Foundation for Ethics in Globalization.
The Product
As a marketplace, bukaPO connects over 4,000 home chefs with individual customers and businesses. Imagine Etsy, but for foodβthatβs basically what bukaPO is.
Since the chefs are locals (90% are women, mostly micro-businesses), the food tends to be local as well. Through bukaPO, you can order dishes like pempekβa desert made from fishcake and tapiocaβor if youβre in the mood for something more familiar, a rice bowl with chicken teriyaki.
The menu itself doesnβt look very fancy, but I think thatβs kind of the point. If it were posh, it wouldnβt feel like authentic home cooking.
Ordering works just like on any other site: pick your dishes, add them to the cart, pay, and wait. Itβs the βwaitβ part where bukaPOβs business model gets interesting.
The Business Model
Since bukaPOβs suppliers are micro-businesses without the capital or scale to offer ready-to-cook meals, the company leverages a pre-ordering model to connect home-based culinary entrepreneurs with customers.
What exactly does that mean?
In traditional food delivery, you order your food and receive it within 30-60 minutes. With bukaPO, you get it the next day. Specifically, if your order is placed before 19:00, you receive it at least one day later. If ordered after 19:00, expect it at least two days later. For customers, the downside here is obvious, but it significantly helps the vendors:
Low financial riskβvendors donβt need to buy ingredients in bulk, hire extra staff, or purchase additional kitchenware. You get the orderβyou buy the ingredients.
Supplemental incomeβvendors donβt need to stand by waiting for orders. They can hold regular jobs and fulfill orders in their free time.
Better quality controlβvendors arenβt forced to rush cooking or compromise on quality. They have enough time to source fresh ingredients.
Guaranteed incomeβorders canβt be canceled or returned, so vendors get paid unless they themselves cancel due to product availability issues or similar reasons.
Once an order is placed, the vendor has at least a day to prepare it. bukaPOβs logistics partner handles delivery within two fixed time windows (11:00 or 15:00), while packaging and quality control are the vendorβs responsibilities.
Now, onto the money.
Vendors set their own prices, though bukaPO runs many promotions vendors can participate in if they want. Payments are made upfront during checkoutβno cash options. On the bright side, bukaPO offers an extensive cashback reward system: customers earn points for signing up, referring friends, reviewing products, or completing surveys. These points can only be used within the platform, encouraging repeat purchases.
bukaPO takes a 12.5% commission on every order. Since customers pay immediately but vendors receive payouts once a week, bukaPO temporarily holds a float. In theory, this float could be leveraged for short-term investments or to offer credit to merchants,
The Local Angle
A land of small food businesses
SMEs contribute 61% of Indonesiaβs GDP (compared to 43.5% in the US). The informal sector alone accounts for 36% of the countryβs GDP and employs 59% of the workforce. Food is one of the sectors where small, often informal businesses dominate. Estimates suggest there are around 2-2.2 million home-based food and beverage businesses in Indonesia, thanks to low barriers to entry, a large addressable market, and unique home recipes.
This abundance of options, combined with a widespread use of delivery apps, has deeply embedded food delivery into local culture. 74% of Indonesians use food delivery services at least once a month, and some estimates suggest families order around 30% of their meals. Overall, the food delivery industry has reached $5.5 billion and is growing at 18% annually.
The love for discounts, promotions, and cashbacks
bukaPOβs website is full of promotions, and for good reason: Indonesians love them.
Promos and discountsβnot convenienceβare the main driver for choosing food delivery services. When selecting a delivery provider, 36% prioritize available discounts and promos, with only 28% considering delivery costs, and just 15% prioritizing speed.
A study showed cashback as the primary driver behind the popularity of ShopeePay, a popular mobile wallet in Southeast Asia. Other research concluded that cashback promotions heavily influence impulse buying.
So yes, promos matterβa lot.
Culinary diversity
Indonesiaβs culinary diversity is driven by two main factors. First, the country hosts 1,331 ethnic groups spread across 17,000 islands, each with unique histories, languages, and traditions. Second, Indonesia has incredible food-source diversity. It produces the second most diverse selection of food globally, trailing only Brazil, including 77 carbohydrate varieties, 75 fats, 389 fruits, and 228 vegetables.
This diversity appears in two ways. One, the sheer range of available dishes: for instance, Soto, a traditional Indonesian soup, alone has 75 variations. Two, the complexity: Indonesian dishes typically contain around ten ingredients, underscoring culinary richness.
The Roadblocks
Aggregators dominate
Thereβs a lot that could be written about the roles that GoTo, Grab, and Shopee play in the Southeast Asian digital economy. But for our purposes, we just need to acknowledge the dominance these three platforms hold. Theyβve aggregated both demand and supply, and now essentially drive the market. Without an inherent advantage, itβs very tough for any newcomer to compete.

Delivery times
Next-day delivery automatically limits bukaPOβs ability to serve the largest segment of the marketβpeople who want to eat here and now. A significant problem with pre-ordering is that I know what I want now and order accordingly, but I have no idea if Iβll want the same dish tomorrow. And since thereβs no way to modify the order afterward, I might end up disappointedβnot because the foodβs bad, but because my preferences changed.
Another problem is the fixed delivery windows. To receive my order, I have to be at a specific place at a specific time. This isnβt much of an issue when food arrives within 40 minutes, but itβs far less convenient when itβs 24 hours later.
Trust and quality control
bukaPO is explicit that quality control is the vendorβs responsibility. But honestly, if a customer gets food poisoning, theyβre not going to care whose fault it technically is. When dealing with Pizza Hut, both customers and platforms rely on the brandβs strict standards. But with mom-and-pop shops, itβs a different story. You might hope for the best, but you never really know.
And this is speculative, but I also think that if you get food poisoning from Pizza Hut, itβs easier to let it slideβyou know millions eat there daily without issues. But when an unknown cook sends you a dish, you have no idea how many other dishes theyβve delivered safely, which could amplify customer doubts.
Scaling challenges
Every marketplace faces challenges in aggregating supply and demand. In bukaPOβs case, these challenges are heightened by how fragmented the supply side isβperhaps just as fragmented as demand. We donβt know what percentage of the 4,000 vendors on the platform operate full-time, but itβs probably not all of them. Scaling bukaPO to tens of millions in revenue would therefore mean onboarding thousands of additional vendors.
Thin margins
While having lower commissions compared to delivery giants is beneficial to both consumers and vendors, commissions are what keep marketplaces afloat. From the 12.5% bukaPO makes on each order, they have to cover staff salaries, tech infrastructure, and payments to delivery partners. Thereβs not much wiggle room.
The Upside
A nobel mission
We talked earlier about how massive Indonesiaβs small-business sector is. bukaPO strongly positions itself as an enabler of micro and small businesses. The company was founded during the pandemic specifically to help local businesses overcome tough times, and both lead investors in their recent funding round are impact-driven. As the company scales, I think this mission can greatly help bukaPO in messaging, recruiting like-minded talent, and maintaining strategic clarity.
Easy to acquire merchants
Although bukaPO obviously needs to continually onboard merchants, I donβt think actually converting them onto the platform is difficult. The rules are very merchant-friendly, and I suspect most vendors donβt already have a digital storefront, making bukaPO an attractive option.
Bali focus
While bukaPO operates in East Java, their main market is Bali. Given Baliβs popularity with tourists and expats, I suspect food delivery is significantly more popular there than on other islands. Plus, Bali isnβt particularly large (5,590 sq km), making marketingβeven offlineβmuch simpler.
The growing tide lifts all boats
The digital economy, the food delivery sector, and Indonesiaβs middle class are all rapidly growing. bukaPO has plenty of opportunities to capitalize on these trends.
The Takeaway
I genuinely didnβt know that pre-ordering meals even existed for individual consumers. Even if Iβd known, Iβd have assumed it mainly appealed to corporate clients, not regular people. bukaPOβs model proves otherwise.
I also appreciate bukaPOβs pro-vendor angle. Usually, aggregators prioritize the consumerβbecause consumers almost always have alternatives. Vendors, on the other hand, often have limited choices. Itβs intriguing to see a marketplace tilt the other way for once.
Also, Iβm hungry.