Pluang Secures Pre-Series B Funding, to Expand Partnerships and Product Development

Investment app Pluang announced to finalize pre-series B fundraising of $20 million or 288.8 billion Rupiah. The funding consortium was led by Openspace Ventures backed by investors who have been involved in the previous rounds, including Go-Ventures.

The company is to use the fresh fund to develop and launch new financial products, expand product offerings among business partners. The company also plans to build a team and develop automation features.

“Previously, these investment assets were only available to the well-off. However, we believe that everyone should have the same opportunity to enhance their savings. Therefore, our new products will later accommodate this goal,” Pluang’s Co-Founder, Claudia Kolonas said.

Pluang has received Series A funding worth $3 million in March 2019. The team claims to reach more than one million active users on the application. The biggest growth is up to 20 times in 2020. Pandemic is said to be a factor triggering this growth that encourages the public to start investing.

“Pluang has successfully demonstrated tremendous business growth in the last 12 months. We are very enthusiastic to support Pluang, along with the company’s ambition to continue to facilitate Indonesians to invest,” Openspace Ventures’ Founding Partner, Shance Chesson said.

Business focus

Pluang’s current focus on product is to utilize government bonds as a means of saving and investing for communities. Feature updates with automation will also help users put saving as a daily routine.

“We plan to expand our product coverage in 2021 by focusing on new products. Therefore, our users can access various investment assets easily and comfortably,” Claudia said.

Currently, Pluang has been selected to provide mini-app features in other applications such as Gojek (GoInvestment), DANA (DANA eMAS), and Bukalapak (BukaEmas). Claudia also said that her team had managed to book efficient user acquisition costs (CAC). To date, gold has proven to be the best choice of its products.

At the end of 2020, Pluang released a new investment product on its platform, allowing users to invest in crypto assets. In collaboration with Zipmex as a partner in transactions, crypto assets offered are starting from Bitcoin and Ethereum as digital currencies with the largest capitalization value today.

Gold investment app

Gold investment is considered to be a good starting point for increasing the penetration of digital investment services to a wider audience – we call it gold as a digital investment catalyst. Apart from having less risk, many Indonesians have done the activity of turning gold into an investment, only by manual method (buying and selling directly at the store.

Based on this information, investment applications have continued to emerge in the past decade, including gold instruments. Our data shows there are at least 9 application providers that offer investment products.

Platform	Minimal Investasi
e-mas	Rp100
Indogold	Rp500
Lakuemas	Rp50.000
Pegadaian	Rp5.000
Pluang	Rp10.000
Sehatigold	Rp20.000
Tamasia	Rp10.000
Tanamduit	Rp10.000
Treasury	Rp5.000

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

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KitaBeli Announces 144 Billion Rupiah Series A Funding, to Focus on Rural Social Commerce

The social commerce platform KitaBeli today announced series A funding worth $10 million or equivalent to 144.3 billion Rupiah. This round was led by Gojek’s investment arm, Go-Ventures, and also supported by AC Ventures and East Ventures as the previous investors.

The fresh funds will be used to expand service coverage throughout Java, expand the logistics network, and develop its mobile applications. In addition, product diversification will be enhanced, starting with beauty products. Since launching in March 2020, KitaBeli claims to reach 80% business growth.

From our observation on the app, it is currently limited to a few areas in the provinces of Central Java, West Java, East Java, DKI Jakarta, and Banten. In seconds, it works like an e-commerce application, however, it focuses on serving daily needs; and capable to form purchasing groups (currently through a quick connection to form a WhatsApp group).

KitaBeli offers internal logistics for delivery options with D +1 maximum claim. The model runs through a network of partnerships that have been built in each area of its operation. This concept is considered to be effective since daily needs do require a fast delivery process.

From the official statement, this application will be focused on users in rural areas, including those who have never done online shopping. The Co-Founder & CEO, Prateek Chaturvedi said, the social commerce business model that connects businesses with end-users makes it possible to form and maintain loyalty.

Not to rely on resellers

Tim pengembang aplikasi KitaBeli / KitaBeli — KitaBeli development team / KitaBeli

Social commerce services are mushrooming in Indonesia. The Super App also focuses on a similar concept in the rural areas. However, just like any other platform – including Woobiz, RateS, BorongBareng, or RateS – the partnership model is a reseller. In addition to being the end consumer, people are encouraged to become a bridge between business and customers using a commission system.

It’s quite different with KitaBeli, they don’t build a network of resellers or marketing agents. Each item is ordered directly through the app by end-users (direct-to-consumer), allowing them to participate in group purchases for more effective pricing. Prateek also said that this concept allows companies to minimize the risk of losing their customer base whether an agent/partner decides to quit.

KitaBeli was founded by Prateek Chaturvedi, Ivana Tjandra, Subhash Bishnoi, and Gopal Singh Rathore. Users invite their acquaintances or join to form groups based on regional proximity, then buy products together at a discounted price. Pinduoduo in China is a successful example of this business model.

“With the concept of sharing and inviting your friends to join the application, our users get more discounts. They can also see what their friends are buying, and join the group of friends, to get a cheaper price,” Prateek explained in a previous interview with DailySocial.

Go-Ventures investment

Regarding investment, Go-Ventures’ SVP Investment, Aditya Kumar said that e-commerce penetration in rural areas is quite low. There are some factors, including a lack of trust, product availability, and high logistics costs. KitaBeli’s business model is considered relevant to solve these challenges.

There is no further details on whether there will be an integration of KitaBeli with Gojek, considering that one of the VC’s missions is to form a consolidation of strengthening the ecosystem.

For local startups, Go-Ventures has invested in several other players. Also to lead the investment for eFishery’s series B funding, Pluang’s series A, as well as investing in the Kumparan and Narasi media.

Pluang alone is now integrated into the GoInvestasi feature, making it easy for Gojek users to invest gold online. In addition, Kumparan also provides news through the Gojek application.

Meanwhile, for startups outside Indonesia, some of the announced investments include funding to an Uganda-based ride-hailing platform called SafeBoda, the Mobile Premier League (MPL) esports platform from India, and cloud kitchen startup Rebel Foods from India.

Rebel Foods has arrived in Indonesia to form a new cloud kitchen business line under the Gojek Group. Meanwhile, MPL’s presence in Indonesia is also supported by Gopay payments as its initial payment platform.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

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Openspace Ventures’ Strategy Post Third Managed Fund Worth $200 Million

In the middle of March 2021, Openspace Ventures announced to complete its third managed fund worth $20 million. This fund has marked a total commitment of $425 million.

Openspace Ventures‘ Director, Ian Sikora revealed to DailySocial that Indonesia is a very important market. In the future, they will continue to focus on enhancing the company’s presence in Indonesia.

“Nearly one-third of our portfolio located in Indonesia and we expect this trend to continue with the third fund. Recently, we welcome Aristo Setiawidjaja as Senior Advisor and Jocelyn Susilo as Senior Analyst, both are based in Jakarta. We will continue to develop our local Indonesian team in the coming months. ”

Openspace Ventures’ first and second fund were launched in 2014 and 2017. Regarding the investment value for Indonesian startups, Ian avoids revealing further detail. However, according to itscommitment, they will continue to actively seek out potential startups in the country.

“Openspace remains agnostic and explores opportunities in each sector. The third fund will target more than 15 investments in Southeast Asia,” Openspace Ventures’ Associate, Tania Shanny Lestari said.

Founded in 2014, the Singapore-based company has a total portfolio of 33 investments across key sectors including logistics, fintech, agritech, edtech, healthtech, cleantech, and B2B SaaS. Indonesia is claimed to be their key country with several investments, including Gojek, FinAccel, Halodoc, TaniHub Group, and the recent ones, iSeller, Zenius, and Pluang.

The Openspace team consists of 25 people from 12 countries. The company held offices in Bangkok, Jakarta, and Manila; also in the process of setting up an office in Ho Chi Minh City.

Supporting woman entrepreneurs

They are currently held activities focused on supporting women entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia by launching special mentoring activities for female entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs. Apart from celebrating International Women’s Day, Openspace Ventures expects to expand women’s participation in the venture capital ecosystem through this activity in Southeast Asia, including in Indonesia.

To date, there have been around 42 participants registered for this activity, all of which will be directly supported by the Openspace Ventures team. Some of the information or education that will be given to participants includes investment, technology, HR, data science, Emotional and Spiritual Quotient (ESQ) & impact.

“For those who intend to join, the opportunity is still open until the end of March. There will be a mentoring session to be scheduled according to the skill set request. And the mentors will spend around 1-2 sessions with the participants.”

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Init-6 Pours 72 Billion Rupiah Seed Funding to IDCloudHost

A Venture Capital founded by Bukalapak’s co-founder Achmad Zaky, Init-6, has just announced its latest investment of $5 million or around Rp72 billion to IDCloudHost, a local cloud service provider and data center.

In a virtual media presentation, Zaky revealed that IDCloudHost is his 11th portfolio after the venture capital was founded in April 2020.

“Since founded a year ago, we have observed around three thousand [startup] companies in Indonesia. We invested in IDCloudHost as we saw the cloud market grows rapidly. The products they offer are suitable for expanding into the Southeast Asian market,” he said.

Moreover, SME digitalization has increased rapidly during the Covid-19 pandemic, therefore, it is the right momentum for the cloud business. IDCloudHost is also targeting the SME market which is the pillar of the Indonesian economy.

On a general note, Init-6 was founded after Zaky resigned from his position as CEO of Bukalapak. Apart from Zaky, Bukalapak’s Co-Founder Nugroho Herucahyono also joined as a Partner at Init-6 after leaving his position as CTO. Init-6 is aiming for investment in the early stage, with Eduka edtech platform as its first portfolio.

Expand to Southeast Asia

This is IDCloudHost’s first funding during its five years of operation. Previously, companies relied on bootstrapping to grow their business.

IDCloudHost’s CEO, Alfian Pamungkas Sakawiguna revealed, this funding will be used for market expansion to Southeast Asia this year. With this target, his team is targeting one million users of its service next year.

Currently, IDCloudHost has served around 100 thousand customers, 350 thousand requests, and planted 5 data centers in Indonesia.

“We will continue to increase data center capacity in line with our expansion to Southeast Asia. We already have a data center in Singapore. In the future, we hope there will be an increase of up to ten times as much for SMEs using the cloud,” he said.

The local cloud computing-based web hosting market is quite competitive. Apart from IDCloudHost, there are dozens of other providers, for example in the micro-medium segment there are Niagahoster, IDWebHost, Masterweb, Exabytes, and so on. Meanwhile, in the upper-medium segment, there are players such as Biznet Gio, Telkom Sigma, and others.

Nevertheless, there are global players starting to mature businesses and build data centers in Indonesia, such as Amazon Web Services, Alibaba Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. In addition to the reliability and affordability, the value proposition of each service provider should be a priority in business strategy to be able to attract wider market interest.

Init-6 investment target in 2021

Furthermore, Zaky revealed that his team will continue to add new portfolios with a bottom-up approach this year. There is no specific target, but Init-6 remains committed to entering some business verticals, such as cloud, edtech, and fintech.

“Last year, we targeted [closing] 20 portfolios, but reached only ten. In fact, the investment cannot be forced, it may be because the pandemic started last year. This year, there could be more as we are getting more agnostic. There are many interesting sectors, fintech for example. Even though we are yet to score a portfolio, I think the future is good.”

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Teja Ventures Invests in Binar Academy; to Secure a Second Managed Fund

Binar Academy, the edutech platform developed by Alamanda Shantika, has completed its seed funding from Singapore-based venture capital, Teja Ventures. The investment value was undisclosed.

Teja Ventures Partner, David Soukhasing revealed to DailySocial that selecting Binar Academy to join its portfolio was based on a strong belief in the company founder with fairly positive track record.

“Binar Academy has had a fairly good number of clients, ranging from middle to upper class. It also has the potential to scale-up and provide good solutions quickly and have a fairly solid foundation,” David said.

Was founded in 2017, Binar Academy is now available in around 33 cities in Indonesia. Earlier this month, they released an application that is available on the App Store and Play Store. Since the beginning, Binar Academy focus to be able to deliver new digital talents who are capable to master programming languages through the platform.

Aside from education, Binar Academy also channels several talents relevant to the needs of companies and startups to join as employees.

Apart from Binar, there are several other startups that provide “bootcamp” concept education services. One of those is Hacktiv8, they provide a lot of education about programming, including channeling their graduates to partner companies. There is also Skilvul, which is also correlated with the Impact Byte program.

Teja Ventures plans

Previously, David was known as Managing Director of ANGIN (Angel Investment Network Indonesia). Then, together with his partner Virginia Tan, who is also ANGIN’s client, he founded Teja Ventures in 2019. They also focus on supporting women founders.

“Teja Ventures is one of ANGIN’s clients (as we have 120 other clients including ADB, TINC, Moonshot Ventures) and also connected with me because I am one of the four partners, including one from Indonesia,” David said.

After Binar Academy, Teja Ventures’ next plan is to continue investing in startups with good potential. Starting from beauty tech, SME supply chain, wellness, and others. Teja Ventures strives to support its portfolio companies in Indonesia, including Duithape, Burgreens, Green Butcher, Shox / Rumah, and Siklus.

“In the future, Teja Ventures is currently preparing for the second managed fund and to continue maintaining good momentum from the LP and deal-flow,” David said.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

SiCepat Holding Company Channels Investment to M Cash Subsidiary

Onstar Express Pte. Ltd., also known as the logistics holding company of SiCepat Ekspres, announced its investment to Logitek Digital Nusantara (LDN) which is a subsidiary of Telefast part of the M Cash group. LDN has helped develop SiCepat service sub-units, including a WhatsApp-based customer application called SiCepat Klik and SiCepat Point delivery point services.

The investment will be used to develop product innovations to enable Indonesian logistics providers to collaborate with extensive offline networks, and help improve the logistics solutions developed by LDN. Apart from SiCepat, LDN is also partnering with other logistics players such as Paxel to strengthen its third-party logistics (3PL) ecosystem.

“We notice the tremendous development capacity of the fast-growing Courier, Express, & Parcel (CEP) market in Indonesia, projected to grow exponentially to $5 billion by 2024. Built on SiCepat’s logistics expertise and knowledge of the Indonesian market and is supported by MCAS Group technology infrastructure, we strive to build an inclusive and accessible 3PL ecosystem that can even facilitate the logistics activities of other players in Indonesia,” Onstar & SiCepat’s CMO, Wiwin D. Herawati said.

Previously, SiCepat has also invested in other M Cash units. Early last year they announced the acquisition of a 51% stake in DigiResto and have now integrated it into SiCepat services. One of the missions is to accelerate business growth by exploring new business potentials in the food delivery segment.

“We expect DigiResto to provide new opportunities for service innovation that can bring us closer to consumers, SMEs, and merchants, especially those engaged in the F&B sector,” Wiwin said in an interview with DailySocial.

GMV food delivery services continue to increase, driven by new habits that have emerged as a result of the pandemic. Based on Momentum Works report, throughout 2020 the food delivery industry in Indonesia managed to book GMV worth $3.7 billion or equivalent to Rp52 trillion. The number was dominated by two decacorn Grab and Gojek with a share of 53% and 47% respectively of the total market share.

Earlier this month, SiCepat also announced its series B funding with a total value of $170 million or 2.44 trillion Rupiah. This round was participated by a number of investors including Falcon House Partners, Kejora Capital, DEG, MDI Ventures, Indies Capital, Pavilion Capital, Tri Hill, and Daiwa Securities.

In DailySocial observation, throughout 2020, SiCepat Ekspres had booked transactions of IDR 3.5 trillion, an increase of 194% compared to 2019 with a total shipment of 180 million packages throughout Indonesia.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

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Segari Receives Seed Funding, Focus on Providing Fresh Groceries

The online grocery platform Segari today (22/3) announced seed funding. This round was led by Beenext with the participation of AC Ventures and Saison Capital. Some angel investors involved are undisclosed.

Segari (PT Sayur Untuk Sudah) was founded by three, including Yosua Setiawan (CEO), Farand Anugerah (COO), and Farandy Ramadhana (CTO). Segari’s vision is to bring high-quality fresh products to households in Indonesia.

“Getting high quality and consistent [fresh produce] is difficult. Not everyone is capable, that is why we focus on it. While other players may focus on expanding SKUs, lowest prices, or expanding areas; we build infrastructure to focus on quality. This is what our customers love,” Setiawan said.

One of the approaches, Segari utilizes a micro warehouse network and thousands of agents in Jakarta for product distribution. Currently, ordering is available via the mobile website or released application.

Segari ensured that each product arrived at the customer’s house no more than 15 hours after harvesting. It is not by keeping stock of goods, but by making a strict prediction of customer demand by balancing the harvest schedules of the farmers.

“We are building an internally tailored end-to-end technology infrastructure to deal with this complex supply chain issue. This includes product receiving from farmers, to long-distance delivery to customers,” Ramadhana added.

Segari exists amid the growing online grocery industry. Even though this category only plays a small part in the whole e-commerce GMV, there is great potential for the Indonesian market. Case studies from abroad, as those conducted by Ding Dong Mai Chai (China), Big Basket (India), Ocado (Europe); shows the potential of online grocery services to hypergrowth and lead to unicorn-equivalent valuations.

Survey by Segari team shows that despite the social restrictions caused by the pandemic, people in Jakarta still went to supermarkets or markets to buy groceries. They do not fully believe in online transactions for fresh products, because they are worried about the quality and freshness of the product.

For AC Ventures’ Managing Partner, Adrian Li, “Segari’s value proposition in producing high-quality products through a data-driven and micro warehouse approach to set them apart from other platforms.” He also believes that fresh products have the potential to become the next opportunity for the e-commerce business, especially because they are driven by changing trends that occur due to Covid-19.

It is undeniable, the online grocery competition is getting tougher. Apart from the new arrivals, legacy players are continue to expand the scope of their products and businesses. For example, Happyfresh, which now covers the Java and Bali areas – besides, it has partnered with Grab and Bualapak.

In addition, there is Sayurbox which continues to expand its market coverage. Recently, they reportedly received an investment from Tokopedia – the consolidation allows them to connect with the ecosystem of the largest local marketplace customer in Indonesia. Also, there is a Kedai Sayur with a unique approach, collaborating with thousands of mobile vegetable seller partners.

On the other hand, the Decacorn Gojek also continues to explore the online grocery market through GoMart. Other big players like Blibli are also doing the same thing through their O2O strategy.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Noice On-Demand Audio Platform to Close Funding Round in Second Quarter of 2021

Noice’s audio-on-demand platform has received seed funding from several investors, including Kenangan Kapital, Alpha JWC, and Kinesys Group. This round will be used to accelerate the development of Noice’s local content and technology this year. Although the value is undisclosed.

In his interview with DailySocial, Mahaka Radio’s President Director, Adrian Syarkawie revealed there’s another investor, claimed to be a unicorn startup, that is involved. He said this unicorn will provide opportunities for synergy between the two companies and greater technology transfer. “I can’t announce the name yet. We will push [closing] in the second quarter,” Adrian said.

Noice was first developed as a streaming radio platform. However, Adrian said this service is considered insufficient to the growing market. Meanwhile on-demand content is growing rapidly in some countries, including Indonesia.

“If it’s only streaming radio, it seems [lacking] for digital applications. Also, people can still access radio from other media. Therefore, we are looking forward to what will be attractive to consumers through this application, and then we will get to the podcast content,” he said to DailySocial.

With PT Mahaka Radio Integra Tbk (MARI) strong position in the radio business, the company also formed a joint venture with PT Quatro Kreasi Indonesia to establish PT Mahaka Radio Digital, Noice’s parent company. Quatro is a consortium of four recording companies in Indonesia, including Musica, Aquarius, My Music, and Trinity.

This consortium, Adrian said, is linked to the common vision of each music label owner to develop applications that focus on local voice-based content.

Investors in tech

This year, Noice will focus on developing application platforms and content localization. Those two things had was not the company’s main focus at first, considering that Mahaka Radio Integra’s main business was producing content. Adrian also said that the Noice platform was not quite optimal at that time in terms of technology as it was developed by a third party.

“We are not a tech company. However, we are aware that we cannot develop from content alone in the future, technology is necessary. Therefore, we have two concerns, content and technology. Mahaka Radio Integra and Quatro are strong in content, and we try to find investors who can provide support in technology,” Adrian said to DailySocial.

Kenangan Kapital is an angel fund owned by Kopi Kenangan’s Co-founder and CEO, Edward Tirtanata, which focuses on portfolios in consumer tech. Kopi Kenangan is also part of the Alpha JWC portfolio. Meanwhile, Kinesys Group focuses on early-stage startup funding.

“Currently, investors are yet to act as shareholders because [their investment] is in the form of convertible loans, which will then be converted into equity. We are looking for partners who can provide guidance in terms of technology and collaboration. For example, investors invest in other portfolios, to be synergized with Noice. We do it gradually as we focus on developing content,” he explained.

With this rank of investors, Noice has added new resources that will focus on the technology side. The company formed a special team from India to internally develop the platform.

Business roadmap 2021

Furthermore, Adrian said that Noice’s technology focuses divided into three phases. First, the launch of the Noice 2.0 beta platform with the new UI / UX this March. Second, the company will launch the 2.X version in May. In this phase, Noice starts to enter an open platform, aka content that can be uploaded individually or personalized content. Third, Noice will begin monetization, either with an advertising or subscription scheme.

With this platform, the company began to boost the number of podcast content this year targeting 4,000-5,000 episodes. As of December, Noice has more than 3,000 podcast episodes, 62 podcast content titles, and signed up to 80 podcasters.

Adrian said, entertainment content, especially comedy and horror, is currently the most popular genre in Indonesia. Nevertheless, Noice will continue to expand its content into various categories, such as education and business. “We produce 95% of the content on Noice ourselves. We hired an exclusive podcaster. We run the idea and podcaster execute the content,” he explained.

For now, Noice content can still be accessed for free. Monetization will only be discussed if the user base, monthly active users (MAU), and time spend increase. Regarding target, Noice is aiming for an increase in user base up to four times from its current position, total play up to eight times, and the amount of exclusive original content increased by two times.

“Currently, we have not focused on monetization as resistance is still an issue with the Indonesian market when talking about the subscription system. Of course, we will start to accelerate advertising and subscription schemes in the future, maybe later in the third stage.”

Based on Spotify data, Indonesia will dominate the most podcast consumption in Southeast Asia in 2020. As many as 20% of the total Spotify users in Indonesia listen to podcasts every month, and this number is higher than the global average percentage.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Tokocrypto to Offer CeDeFi Token through Binance Smart Chain

The crypto asset marketplace platform Tokocrypto will develop Indonesia’s first claimed hybrid CeDeFi (TKO) token on the Binance Smart Chain. Binance is an early-stage investor in Tokocrypto.

TKO combines Centralized Finance (CeFi) and Decentralized Finance (DeFi) mechanisms. Financial products with the DeFi mechanism are considered to help accelerate the improvement of financial literacy in Indonesia because they provide low fees, fast transactions, and easy to use.

In order to bridge the gap, Tokocrypto will focus on educating users about crypto finance and developing CeFi utilities, such as TKO Deposit, TKO Savings & TKO Cashback at Tokocrypto. Currently, Tokocrypto is building a liquid pool, while TKO is still in the process of distributing it to the community as a reward. TKO will be officially released by Tokocrypto in April 2021.

“Binance has been our support at Tokocrypto. Through this closer collaboration, it is expected to drive crypto adoption through TKO tokens throughout Indonesia. This will also allow us to leverage human resources and support throughout the BSC ecosystem,” Tokocrypto’s CEO Pang Xue Kai said.

DeFi’s existence as an open financial system is available in Indonesia. Although it is yet to be an official means of payment, Bitcoin and other crypto-assets have been recognized as commodities that can be traded in 13 crypto asset traders officially registered with BAPPEBTI. This crypto asset trading mechanism is regulated in Bappebti Regulation No. 5 of 2019.

Supported by Tokocrypto community

DeFi becomes very relevant for the Indonesian market, but there’s still no proof of successful players running DeFi. Tokocrypto has the ambition to fully support this ecosystem. One of those is by developing the community they have today.

“We want to become a DeFi platform in Indonesia, together with the community we want to initiate it. Currently, there are many products that are driven by the community,” Tokocrypto’s COO, Teguh Kurniawan Harmanda added.

Tokocrypto is the first crypto asset trader registered with BAPPEBTI. Born by a group of crypto enthusiasts who have full faith in the benefits offered by blockchain technology, Tokocrypto has a big goal to help Indonesians understand this industry and to integrate this technology into society and the global economy.

Although it’s still a lack of public interest to start investing in crypto assets, Teguh believes that market interest will begin to grow this year and in the future. One of the reasons is the support of the government and regulators, which encourage growth and awareness of the wider community of crypto assets.

“It is undeniable that there are lots of people still pessimistic about crypto assets. However, by the increasingly mature market and the growing number of stock investors, stock influencers, online motorcycle taxi drivers, to students playing with crypto assets, I am sure the market’s interest in Crypto assets will increase in number,” Teguh said.

He said that crypto-assets today and in the future are not only a place of speculation but have become a safe haven asset for the wider community. For this reason, it is wise for the community to be fully aware of what kind of funds are then worthy of being invested. Do not let personal funds or routine deposits be put into crypto-asset investments.

“For that I am responsible not only for the company but also as Chairman of the Indonesian Crypto Asset Traders Association (ASPAKRINDO), wanting to provide true and accurate education to the public about crypto-asset investment,” Teguh said.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

In 2021, Gojek Singapore’s Focus Remains on Driver Acquisition

After officially launched in Singapore in late 2018, Gojek is said to experience significant growth in terms of drivers and users – although they avoid revealing the precise number. This year, the local decacorn has some plans to be launched soon, with the same goal, to continue increasing the number of its driver-partners.

Gojek representatives revealed to DailySoial that Singapore has been a strategic market for Gojek. Of all the plans, one is to launch new transportation products to provide more benefits for users and drivers, including a convenient transportation platform for companies, as well as special features for ordering taxis and large vehicles.

In the future, Gojek intends to explore new potentials to launch relevant products and services to the Singapore market, both independently developed services and in partnerships with other startups.

Previously quoted from ChannelNewsAsia, Gojek’s Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Kevin Aluwi said Gojek has a goal of making a lasting impact in Singapore for the years to come and making “strategic investments” in developing the business this year.

Since its arrival in Singapore, Gojek has focused on ride-hailing services to provide new options to users. “We are also the first vehicle booking operator in the country to offer multi-purpose features for up to three destinations,” said a Gojek representative.

In Singapore, there are existing legacy players. The latest data from DBS Group Research, as of 2019 there are three key players in the Asia Pacific, including Grab (estimated number of active drivers: 2.8 million partners and trips: 2.4 billion times), Gojek (1 million partners/1,2 billion times), and Ola Cabs (1 million partners/1 billion times).

According to data from Google, Temasek Holdings, and Bain & Company, in 2020 there was a decline in GMV for ride-hailing services in Southeast Asia, from $13 billion in 2019 to $11 billion in 2020 due to social restrictions amid the pandemic. However, it is projected to grow beyond $42 billion by 2025. Indonesia was the highest contributor in 2020 valued at $5 billion, followed by Singapore at $2 billion.

By comparison, the global ride-hailing market value according to MarketsandMarkets reached $75.39 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow to $117.34 billion by 2021.

Gojek and digital talents

Before its operational launch, Gojek had already explored Singapore for its office base, especially to accommodate the data team. The office has been official since 2017.

Although based in Singapore, Gojek’s data science office supports all targeted markets in Southeast Asia. Its function is quite important to improve the efficiency and user experience on the Gojek platform, from improvements across automatic customer service, pricing algorithms, routing tools, and allocations.

To date, Gojek has made the office a data science hub because of the talent and existing technology infrastructure. Within three years, Gojek claimed the team had increased by over three times. Currently, the team has been developing some innovations, from data analytics, data science, machine learning, and others.

“We are expanding our Singapore-based technology talent, particularly in cybersecurity and data analytics, to support the growth of our business across the region. We will continue to promote Gojek’s dynamic values and culture through various channels, including social media, as well as ecosystem players such as a university – to reach, train and recruit the best talent.”

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian
Gambar Header: Depositphotos.com

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