Connecting kindness across Indonesia - one donation, one campaign, one act of mutual aid at a time.
In 2013, an economics graduate named Alfatih Timur kept meeting kindhearted people who wanted to help others but had nowhere reliable to raise money. Inspired by U.S. crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and GoFundMe, he and co-founder Vikra Ijas launched Kitabisa - Indonesian for "we can" - with a single stated mission: to connect kindness.
What began as a bootstrapped side project, funded partly with leftover money from Timur's wedding gifts, has grown into Indonesia's largest donation-based crowdfunding platform. Through the Kitabisa website and app, individuals, NGOs and companies raise money transparently for medical bills, disaster relief, education and social causes - as well as religious giving such as zakat and wakaf.
The company runs as a social enterprise rather than a charity, taking roughly a 5% fee on most campaigns to sustain operations. It waives that fee entirely on zakat and disaster-relief campaigns, a deliberate choice that signals where its priorities sit. That distinction - business discipline in service of giving - runs through everything the company does.
Trust is the real product. Every campaign passes what Kitabisa calls a "three plus one" verification process, covering identity, supporting documents and medical-facility checks, and the platform monitors how funds are actually used. "This is what distinguishes us from other crowdfunding platforms," co-founder Alfatih Timur has said, "because we closely monitor how the funds will be used."
That verification became the foundation for scale. When COVID-19 hit in 2020, Kitabisa raised roughly $10 million for relief in about two months, logging some 3 million individual donations. The plumbing was already there; generosity simply flooded through it.
"This is what distinguishes us from other crowdfunding platforms, because we closely monitor how the funds will be used."
At its core, Kitabisa is a two-sided marketplace for generosity. On one side are campaign creators: patients facing hospital bills, families hit by disaster, NGOs running social programs, and corporations distributing CSR budgets. On the other side are donors - millions of everyday Indonesians who can give from their phones in seconds.
The platform layered Islamic social finance on top of secular crowdfunding. Users can pay zakat (obligatory alms) and contribute to wakaf (productive endowments) directly in the app, in compliance with religious principles. For many Muslim Indonesians, Kitabisa turned an annual ritual into a tap.
Then came the pivot that surprised outsiders: protection. In 2020 Kitabisa launched Saling Jaga, a mutual-aid program modeled on China's Xiang Hu Bao and Waterdrop, where members chip in small amounts - starting from Rp6,000 - to cover each other's critical-illness costs, with benefits up to Rp2 billion. By late 2024 the program counted more than 25,000 members. The company later entered the insurance sector outright, extending Saling Jaga into licensed, sharia-aligned family protection.
A donation app becoming an insurer sounds like scope creep. Look closer and both are the same promise: I'll be there when you can't. Kitabisa found that through-line and followed it.
Website and app campaigns for medical bills, disaster relief, education and social causes - with verification and progress updates.
Digital collection and distribution of zakat in line with Islamic principles. No platform fee charged.
Productive endowment feature that channels donations into long-term Islamic charitable assets.
Mutual-aid protection from Rp6,000 - members pool small contributions to cover each other for critical illness.
Licensed life-insurance arm offering sharia-aligned family protection, extending the Saling Jaga model.
Fund management, campaign tooling and CSR distribution for corporations and hundreds of partner NGOs.
Kitabisa sustains itself as a social enterprise. A roughly 5% fee on most campaigns funds operations, while zakat and disaster-relief drives run fee-free. Enterprise CSR services and the insurance/mutual-aid arm add further revenue lines.
* Bars illustrate relative role of each revenue line, not exact figures. Fee waived on zakat and disaster relief.
Indonesia is fertile ground for a platform like this - Indonesians consistently rank among the most generous people in the world by giving surveys. Kitabisa didn't invent that instinct; it removed the friction around it and added a layer of accountability that cash-in-an-envelope giving never had.
Against local crowdfunding peers such as BenihBaik, WeCare.id and Ayobantu, Kitabisa's edge is scale and trust: verification processes, campaign monitoring, and years of proof that funds reach the right hands. Against global players like GoFundMe and Kickstarter, its advantage is local depth - Islamic social finance, disaster response, and payment integrations tuned for Indonesia.
On the protection side, Saling Jaga puts Kitabisa in the same conversation as mutual-aid and insurtech models like Waterdrop and Xiang Hu Bao - but wrapped in the credibility of a brand Indonesians already associate with giving. That combination of philanthropy and financial services is difficult for a pure insurer or a pure charity to copy.
The expertise underneath it all is unglamorous: fraud screening, fund verification, religious-compliance workflows, and the payment plumbing that lets a donor in Surabaya fund a patient in Papua. Reputation compounds slowly, then all at once.
| Round | When | Notable backers |
|---|---|---|
| Bootstrapped | 2013-2015 | Founder savings (partly wedding-gift money) |
| Early / growth | 2016-2021 | Endeavor Catalyst, ATM Capital, Argor, Saratoga (reported) |
| Series B | Jan 2023 | IFC (lead), Northstar Group, Go-Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst |
Total funding reported at roughly $20M to date. Figures drawn from public databases and press reports; some rounds undisclosed.
Alfatih Timur and Vikra Ijas launch the platform after seeing generous people struggle to raise funds.
The platform operates without outside funding, financed largely by founder savings.
Outside investment arrives; the platform scales and adds zakat and NGO services.
Kitabisa broadens its app with religious giving features including productive wakaf.
Raises about $10M for COVID-19 relief and launches the Saling Jaga mutual-aid program.
Enters the insurance sector to extend Saling Jaga into licensed family protection.
Closes a Series B round led by IFC with Northstar, Go-Ventures and Endeavor Catalyst.
Kitabisa is Indonesia's largest donation-based crowdfunding platform, letting individuals, NGOs and companies raise and donate money for social causes, medical bills, disaster relief, zakat and wakaf through a website and mobile app.
It operates as a social enterprise, taking roughly a 5% platform fee on most campaigns while waiving fees on zakat and disaster relief, plus revenue from CSR services and its insurance/mutual-aid arm.
It was founded in 2013 by Alfatih Timur and Vikra Ijas, with the mission to connect kindness.
Saling Jaga is Kitabisa's mutual-aid protection program where members contribute small amounts - starting from Rp6,000 - to help cover each other's medical costs, with benefits up to Rp2 billion.
Yes. Kitabisa runs a "three plus one" verification process covering identity, supporting documents and medical-facility checks, and monitors how funds are used.