Disruptive Tech Startups in Indonesia

Businesses in less developed countries in Southeast Asia need to consider a near term market expansion of looking abroad than having a longer term imaginary trajectory, according to venture capitalists at DEALSTREETASIA’s PE/VC Summit 2017 held in Singapore on September 21-22, 2017.

Speaking at the panel, “Decoding Tiger Cub Economies of Southeast Asia,” Thailand’s Digital Ventures managing director Paul Ark said, businesses are thinking about a 10 years-plus horizon of being a unicorn but not a considerably shorter vision.

“Even a company in Thailand with pretty good revenue has never thought about a second market,” added Ark.

Countries like Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia may have more mature startup already scaling themselves by expanding to foreign countries, but enterprises in the Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar should have a shorter term vision of market expansion.

“Especially in a young ecosystem, there is desire to be a sexy part of the startup land, becoming a unicorn and raising,” said Minette B Navarrete, vice chairman and president of Kickstart Ventures.

Looking at the Philippines, the country has seen growth of over 6 per cent in the last seven years and had a number of changes including the ease of doing business.

However, Kin-Wai Lau, CEO & Director of Fatfish Internet Group, a Singapore headquartered venture and accelerator focussed on Southeast Asia and Australia, said, the Philippines was not yet a country of interest for investors from Singapore.

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Indonesia – the land of a thousand kings. An exotic country chock-full of beauty, culture and a rich heritage. Home to more than 261.1 Mn people spread across 17,508 islands, Indonesia has undergone dramatic urbanisation in the last couple of years. Today, it boasts a thriving startup ecosystem. As per a report by Google and management consulting firm AT Kearney, in the first eight months of 2017, Indonesian startups collectively raised $3 Bn in 53 investment deals.

According to the study, titled “Indonesia Venture Capital Outlook 2017”, investment in the country’s startup market jumped 68 times in the last five years to around $1.4 Bn in 2016.

Commenting on the spectacular growth of Indonesian startups, AT Kearney partner Alessandro Gazzini said at a recent press conference, “Due to the massive growth, the value of startup investments in Indonesia may surpass the nation’s oil and gas investment which was$5 Bn in 2016.”

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Jakarta. Global venture capital firm East Ventures announced on Thursday (21/09) that it has raised $30 million for seed capital and early-stage financing of Indonesian startups.

"East Ventures aims to empower local small to medium businesses by building the local ecosystem to support the country's growth," the company said in a statement.

In its sixth investment funding, which is managed by East Ventures partners Wilson Cuaca, Batara Eto and Taiga Matsuyama, the company focuses on Indonesia in a bid to empower young entrepreneurs in the digital sector.

Indonesia's strong macroeconomic outlook and favorable demography have been attracting more investment, says global management consulting firm A.T. Kearney, according to which from January to August investment deals reached $3 billion, 60 times more compared with the same period in 2012. Between 2012 and 2017, 244 companies completed 381 deals in the country.

As one of the most active investors, East Ventures made 192 deals, around half of all, in Indonesia's technology sector. At least 70 percent of the country's startups received their seed capital and early-stage financing from East Ventures.

The company has invested in 116 companies, of which 96 attracted follow-on investment.

East Ventures backed Indonesia's unicorns (startups worth more than $1 billion) such as ride-hailing service Go-Jek, e-commerce company Tokopedia, online ticket-booking company Traveloka, online-to-offline payment service Kudo, co-working space EV Hive, beauty products marketplace Sociolla and online marketplace for tutors Ruangguru.

This year, East Ventures-funded companies saw significant deals, including a $1.1 billion tech giant Alibaba-led investment in Tokopedia, a $500 million Expedia-led investment in Traveloka, acquisition of Kudo by Grab, and acquisition of ticketing platform Loket by Go-Jek.

The company says it has collaborated with the government and local firms in its sixth investment funding.

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TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Based on research conducted by Google and AT Kearney, a number of investments towards startup companies have increased 68 folds in the past five years. This trend shows that investor confidence in the startup industry has improved significantly.

“The growth of Ventura Capital (VC) in Indonesia during the past five years has been explosive by improving 60 times larger,” said Mifza Muzayan, Google Sales Operations & Strategy Lead. He predicts a positive outlook for Indonesia in the next year or two.

In 2016, the total amount of investments in startup companies amounted to US$1,4 billion. That number has since risen to US$3,0 billion up to the eighth month of 2017.

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Jakarta. JD.id, the local affiliate of China's e-commerce platform JD.com, plans to expand its business in Indonesia as the company looks to take advantage of a budding digital market, a company executive said on Thursday (07/09).

"Indonesia has a tremendous amount of potential and a large young population. With the numerous rival players in the e-commerce market, Indonesia is still big enough for all of us," Zhang Hong Mei, head of JD.com's cross border business department, told guest participants at the Asean Marketing Summit at the Raffles Hotel in South Jakarta.

According to collaborative research conducted by tech giant Google and Singaporean wealth-based fund manager Temasek, Indonesia's regular Internet users are projected to reach 215 million by 2020 from just 92 million in 2015.

Indonesia's e-commerce market is also projected to generate $46 billion in revenue by 2025 from $1.7 billion in 2015. The study also noted that the country is set to become a major contributor to Southeast Asia's e-commerce sector, as the local market is expected to account for 52 percent of the region's sector by 2025, up from 31 percent in 2015.

However, Zhang also highlighted several challenges still hampering Indonesia's e-commerce market from growing significantly, including low numbers of high-skilled workers, poor Internet service providers, weak logistics and infrastructure development and a lack of cashless payment systems.

To overcome some of those issues, JD.id will look to heavily invest in building warehouses and hiring and educating local talent to become market leaders.

"However, there is a cultural difference [between the two countries], we are fast, we are okay to work late, but here [in Indonesia] the culture is quite different," said Zhang, without elaborating further on the issue.

She said it is still possible to bring skilled talent from China to educate young, local talent. :lol::lol:

JD.com, the second largest e-commerce company in China after Alibaba, started operations of its Indonesian unit, JD.id, in November 2015. Now, the portal offers 14 categories to choose from, ranging from branded clothing to electronic goods.

As of last year, JD.id had more than 100,000 stock keeping units (SKU), with the products manufactured in both China and Indonesia, and a growth of cross border trade orders to over 500 percent.

In Indonesia, the company has warehouses in Jakarta, Pontianak (West Kalimantan) and Surabaya (East Java), which employ more than 1,000 workers. The company is currently building five new warehouses to be located on Java island and in Papua.

Zhang said the company expects its number of employees to double by next year.

JD.id also operates its own logistics firm, named Jaya Ekspres Transindo.

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Jakarta, CNN Indonesia -- CEO sekaligus pendiri Gojek Nadiem Makariem mengumumkan bahwa Gopay nantinya akan bisa digunakan untuk melakukan pembayaran di luar aplikasi Gojek. Sehingga Gopay tak hanya digunakan untuk membayar berbagai layanan Gojek seperti selama ini dilakukan.

"Dalam 3-6 bulan ke depan, Gopay akan keluar dari aplikasi Gojek. Dia akan bisa digunakan untuk pembayaran online maupun offline," kata Nadiem dalam konferensi The Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) Indonesia 2017 yang dilaksanakan di ICE, Tangerang, Selasa (26/9).

Dengan memperluas layanan pembayaran non tunainya, Gopay bisa digunakan di e-commerce atau situs online lainnya di Indonesia. Gopay juga bisa digunakan untuk membayar di toko offline. Sayang, Nadiem enggan menyebutkan secara rinci rekanan yang sudah bekerjasama dengan Gopay.

"Kalau e-commerce itu jelas. Tetapi jangan lupa bahwa Gojek memiliki jaringan offline merchant yang paling besar. Saya kira itu justru yang menarik," lanjutnya.

Nadiem juga mengatakan nantinya, Gopay juga bisa digunakan untuk membeli di toko aplikasi seperti Play Store dan Apple App Store.

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Who will be the farmers? Indonesia’s President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo recently inquired about the lack of interest from young graduates of the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) in taking up farming, when addressing their anniversary event.

With 260 million people, surely food security, the goal of all Indonesian leaders past and present, would require improved agricultural productivity?

So how can we ensure food security and sufficient nutrition without compromising the social, economic and environmental conditions for future generations?

Innovation can break the systemic issue that is creating a vicious cycle: some of the problems in our current agriculture practices are intensifying climate change, while climate change affects food production.

Indonesian entrepreneurs and visionaries are already realising the opportunities to improve the way we produce, harvest, distribute and consume food.

Tunggul Dian Santoso, a graduate of Pratama Mulia Polytechnic in Surakarta, Central Java, has invented the Genitech, a solar-powered tool using ultrasonic waves to drive pests away from crops. Other than being more environmentally friendly than pesticides, the water-resistant tool also boosts rice crops. Tanihub forms a digital platform to provide farmers with information on farming techniques and commodity prices. By improving access to information for farmers, they can improve the efficiency of their crop management. They also increase their bargaining power with middlemen. Urban farming is a growing trend for citizens of densely populated cities like Jakarta where land availability is extremely limited. Communities are initiating vertical farming and hydroponic gardens, with local government support. In fact, the capital’s municipality is planning a grand design for an urban farming programme to meet food needs through local farmers.

Michelli Wirahadi, an interior design student from Petra Christian University in Surabaya, East Java, has invented a styrofoam-like product made from a compound of orange peel, turning waste into a functional object. These promising technologies, among many others, are transforming every link in the food chain, from farm to fork. By providing space for innovations to shift the perspective on how our food is made, we can collectively realise our right to a healthy and secure food system. Only then will agriculture be able to do more with less: making food more accessible and available for all, while making sure the planet is in good care.

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Jakarta - Layanan isi ulang uang elektronik yang diterbitkan oleh sejumlah perusahaan disuspend atau dihentikan sementara oleh Bank Indonesia (BI) selaku regulator sistem pembayaran.

Penghentian dilakukan, karena penerbit e-Money belum memiliki izin dari bank sentral. Direktur Program Elektronifikasi Departemen Kebijakan dan Pengawasan Sistem Pembayaran BI, Pungky Purnomo Wibowo mengatakan saat ini sejumlah lembaga penerbit sudah dalam tahap proses pengajuan izin ke BI.

"Proses perizinan bisa keluar paling cepat 35 hari kerja dan bisa diaktifkan kembali. Tapi itu jika perusahaan sudah memenuhi persyaratan dan dokumen yang diminta oleh Bank Indonesia," kata Pungky kepada detikFinance, Senin (2/10/2017).

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Jakarta - Setelah bertahun-tahun fokus di dalam negeri, Go-Jek mengungkapkan kesiapannya ekspansi ke luar negeri. Negara-negara di kawasan Asia Tenggara menjadi sasaran utamanya.

Pendiri dan CEO GO-Jek Nadiem Makarim sendiri tidak blak-blakan mengenai negara yang sedang diincar oleh perusahaannya. Namun, ia menjelaskan kriteria negara mana yang siap untuk diekspansi oleh Go-Jek.

Selain Indonesia yang penduduknya paling besar di Asia Tenggara, Filipina, Vietnam, dan Thailand mungkin merupakan negara yang menggiurkan untuk disasar Go-Jek. Sebab, ketiga negara tersebut bila digabungkan penduduknya bisa mencapai 270 juta jiwa.

Nadiem menyatakan bahwa Go-Jek mengincar negara yang infrastruktur teknologinya belum terlalu berkembang. Seperti masih minimnya masyarakat yang punya akses ke perbankan. Mungkin mereka akan diarahkan untuk memanfaatkan Go-Pay.

"Saya pikir kami telah membuat model sebuah platform yang bekerja di ekonomi yang sedang berkembang, di mana infrastrukturnya tidak terlalu bagus. Ada kemungkinan besar kita akan memanfaatkan seluruh potensi sehingga saat masuk bisa memanfaatkan seluruh senjata kita," tutur Nadiem dikutip dari Straits Times, Rabu (4/10/2017).

Apabila langkah Go-Jek itu terwujud, maka semakin memperketat persaingan dengan Grab dan Uber. Grab yang merupakan kompetitor terbesar Go-Jek belum lama ini disokong dana besar dari SoftBank Group Corp dan Didi Chuxing dari China.

Grab belakangan ini agresif ekspansi ke Indonesia. Perusahaan yang berasal dari Malaysia ini mengklaim telah menjangkau 75 kota. Seperti diketahui, Grab didirikan oleh Anthony Tan yang merupakan teman Nadiem saat kuliah di Harvard Business School.

"Kami selalu bersikap bertahan. Inilah waktunya membawa persaingan ke depan pintu rumah mereka," sebut Nadiem.

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