Indonesia’s consumer insight platform Populix has raised USD 1 million in a seed funding round led by Intudo Ventures, with participation from Gobi Agung and Pegasus Tech Ventures.
In a statement, Populix said it will utilize the fresh capital to develop new products to provide more in-depth insights to clients. The company will also invest more in marketing efforts and will expand its team.
The firm was founded in January 2018 by Dr. Timothy Astandu, an expert in research methodology, and Eileen Kamtawijoyo, an experienced marketing executive. The young startup helps businesses connect with respondents, providing insights to better understand Indonesian consumers and make informed decisions. The startup leverages tech to accurately understand consumer feedback in real-time, the company says.
“At Populix, we cover the full spectrum of research, including qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods, as we believe that different research objectives require different approaches to answer the questions at hand. We are able to ensure the validity of the research outputs by using only high-quality respondents and implementing controls throughout the research process,” Populix’s co-founder and CEO Timothy Astandu told KrASIA.
For instance, the company requires each respondent to submit an ID card, and by using IP address detection the firm can prevent ballot-stuffing or one respondent filling the same survey more than once. “In terms of the study itself, our algorithm can determine whether a respondent is focused on fulfilling a study, and we can also automatically determine the consistency of their answers,” Astandu added.
Populix works directly with clients to support research design, respondent recruitment, data analysis, and targeted recommendations to provide custom-tailored consumer research.
The firm says that its products and services are about half the price of conventional research firms. “Respondent recruitment is oftentimes the most costly and time-consuming aspect of the research process, and as we already have a pool of respondents for our studies, we pass on these cost savings directly to the client,” Astandu said.
The company has completed research on more than 70 brands across 27 industries so far. Their clients include multinational companies, small and medium enterprises, as well as individuals based in Europe and Asia-Pacific.
In the future, the company plans to expand its business and services into neighboring Southeast Asian countries, with Vietnam and the Philippines in their first pipeline, Astandu confirmed.