Vara

Vara provides a staff management platform that assists small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in digitizing their human resources processes. The company was founded in 2020 by Vidush Mahansaria and Abhinav Karale, who met at the Wharton School and shared a vision to address the operational challenges faced by SMEs in emerging markets. Mahansaria previously worked at Grab and the growth equity fund Iconic Capital, experiences which provided him with insights into hyper-growth environments and technology ecosystems. Karale brought his own expertise to the venture.

The company's core product, Bukugaji, is a mobile-first application designed to replace manual, paper-based methods for managing attendance, payroll, and staff data. The platform enables businesses, particularly those in labor-intensive sectors like retail, F&B, construction, and transportation with fewer than 30 employees, to automate tasks such as tracking work hours, calculating salaries, and disbursing payments. This system serves as a single record for both employers and employees, aiming to increase efficiency and transparency.

Vara's business model is centered on its app, which is designed to be self-service, allowing businesses to download and use it independently. The company primarily targets the Indonesian market, where SMEs constitute a significant portion of the GDP. Vara secured $4.8 million in a seed funding round in 2021 from investors including Go Ventures, RTP Global, and Sequoia Capital India's Surge accelerator program, of which Vara is a part. In 2022, it was reported that India-based staff management app PagarBook was set to acquire Vara.

Keywords: staff management, SME payroll, human resources, attendance tracking, payroll automation, employee management, Indonesian SMEs, Bukugaji, workforce management, financial services, mobile payroll, F&B payroll, retail staff management, construction payroll, self-service HR, Vidush Mahansaria, Abhinav Karale, Go Ventures, Sequoia Surge, PagarBook