[Weekly Updates] Gojek Acquires Moka; Funding Updates From Northstar Group, Modalku, Fore Coffee; and More

Although no official statement yet, it’s reported that Gojek has acquired Moka for around $130 million. Furthermore, Northstar Group has completed first round of its Northstar V fund, Fore Coffee secures additional $1 million investment, and Modalku receives $40 million.

In other news, Bizzy has initiated TokoSmart Agent network to widen its customer base. The company is no longer put its focus on B2B marketplace.

Gojek Wraps Up Acquisition of Moka at 2 Trillion Rupiah Valuation

The acquisition of Moka by Gojek finally comes to an agreement, widely rumoured since Agustus 2019. The company has submitted corporate action to the regulator (KPPU) as of April 9th, 2020.

Bloomberg reported that Moka has been acquired by Gojek at $130 million or around 2 trillion Rupiah.

Northstar Group Secures First Round of Its Fifth Fund, Targeting 12.5 Trillion Rupiah

Northstar Group has just announced the first round of Northstar Equity Partner V Limited Fund (Northstar V). The fifth fund is focused on early-stage to growth-stage startups in Southeast Asia, esp. Indonesia.

The first round has represented one third of Northstar V target at $800 million or equivalent to 12.5 trillion Rupiah. Included into the investor’s list are sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, institutional investors, family offices, and other high net-worth individuals.

Fore Coffee’s Expansion Plan After Raising 147 Billion Rupiah Funding

After raising a $9.5 million or around 147 billion Rupiah funding, Fore Coffee looks for more opportunity to expand and added more outlets. It has expanded its business to Bandung, Surabaya, and Medan. Fore Coffee claims to have profitable sales with increasing team numbers.

Fore’s Co-Founder, Elisa Suteja, told DailySocial that the company has achieved business growth phase after closing the Series A funding in April 2019 with additional $1 million secured early this year.

Modalku’s Parent Company to Proceed with Series C Funding Worth Over 625 Billion Rupiah

Modalku’s parent company, Funding Societies, raises series C funding worth of $40 million (over 625 billion Rupiah). Modalku’s CEO, Reynold Wijaya, said the fresh money will be distributed to support all aspects of the company’s strategies, including to empower Indonesia’s SMEs.

Internally, the company conducts streamline operations to improve efficiency and simplify the operational process. This process includes a small number of layoffs.

Bizzy Adapts to Consumer’s Behavior, Introducing Tokosmart Agent

Since January 2019, Tokosmart has launched an initiative to support the digitisation of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Tokosmart has acquired 54,600 stores and more than 27,000 distribution companies in Indonesia.

To push Tokosmart’s further effectiveness, Bizzy has developed Tokosmart Agent, a new beta feature that was launched last week. Tokosmart Agent directly targets end-user and community leader segments, like RT or RW leaders in the local area. They can order large quantities of supplies to be distributed to residents in their homes.

Northstar Group Secures First Round of Its Fifth Fund, Targeting 12.5 Trillion Rupiah

The private equity company, Northstar Group has just announced the first round of Northstart Equity Partner V Limited fund (Northstar V). The fifth fund is to focused on the early-stage to growth-stage startups in Indonesia and Southeast Asia.

The first round has represented one third of Northstar V target at US$800 million or equivalent to 12.5 trillion Rupiah, following the two previous flagship funds. In this first round of Northstar V, Northstar Group has raised over US$2 million managed funds.

Some investors come from sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, institutional investors, family offices, and other high-net-worth individuals.

“As a regional investment company, we set three investment lines for Northstar V, namely financial services, consumers, and digital economy; based on an analysis of insight market data and our experience in tagging along the company’s portfolio,” Head of Corporate Affairs Northstar Group Hiro Whardana told DailySocial.

Furthermore, he mentioned the representation plans, “At the planning stage, we are yet to define specific percentages for each investment line. The selection of funds will be based on our analysis regarding the balance of potential return and investment risk.”

As previously mentioned, Northstar portfolios are quite diverse. In terms of digital landscape, they also invest in some startups, including Gojek, Zenius Education, and three Vietnam-based startups named UPgen, Tiki.vn, and Topika.

“Specifically for the early-growth stage startup, we are currently focusing on the existing portfolio, however, there is always a possibility to explore more deals,” he added.

Northstar Group was founded in 2003 by Patrick Walujo and Glenn Sugita. In 2006, Northstar Group raised its first funding, Northstar Equity Partners (NEP) Limited for US$ 110 million. Followed by NEP II (US$ 285 million) in 2008, NEP III in 2011 (US$ 820 million), and NEP IV in 2014 (US$ 810 million). The company is backed by 27 professional teams in Singapore and Indonesia.

“The Indonesian market, and Southeast Asia in general, offer attractive medium and long-term investment opportunities supported by continuous rapid growth. It is driven by favorable demographic factors, increased consumption and economic standards of the citizen, and literature in education and digitalization,” Northstar Group’s Co-Founder & Managing Partner Patrick Walujo said.

Glenn Sugita, Northstar Group Co-Founder & Managing Partner added, “In this uncertain situation, we want to be the capital provider and partner of choice for business owners in managing challenges and maximizing opportunities in the future. We will continue to bring not only capital to our portfolio companies but also the expertise and experience we have gained in various sectors and business cycles.”

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Gojek Wraps Up Acquisition of Moka at 2 Trillion Rupiah Valuation

The acquisition news of Moka point-of-sales startup by Gojek finally comes to an agreement, after spreading rumors since Agustus 2019. First, the company has submitted corporate action to the regulator, in this case, through KPPU official page as of April 9th, 2020.

Keterangan akuisisi Moka oleh Gojek di laman KPPU — Moka’s acquisition by Gojek in KPPU official page

Second, Bloomberg also reported from a reliable source that Moka has acquired by Gojek at US$130 million or around 2 trillion Rupiah. The number has increased from the reported ones at US$120 million. The transaction is ongoing since last year and met an agreement just few months ago.

Gojek has taken the strategic step to channel the Series F funding which has been going since October 2018. In mid-March 2020, the company reportedly received additional funds of US$ 1.2 billion or equivalent to 18 trillion Rupiah for the round, completing the acquisition target of US $ 3 billion or equivalent to 42.2 trillion Rupiah.

Moka’s role can be very significant. Based in Jakarta, the company currently established by Grady Laksmono and Haryanto Tanjo since 2014 has reached users in 100 cities in Indonesia. More than 35 thousand restaurants, cafes, and other retail outlets take advantage of its POS mobile application.

Catatan capaian Moka sepanjang tahun 2019 / Moka — Moka’s achievement lists during 2019 / Moka

Moka aware of the tight competition in this vertical and continues to innovate including to launch Moka Fresh platform (purchasing raw materials) and Moka Capital (merchant loan funds) – in his statement Tanjo said that Moka’s vision of becoming a “merchant supper app”, intends to accommodate various retailers’ needs in an integrated manner through a digital platform.

In addition to cash transactions, the Moka cashier system allows business owners to accept payments with digital platforms such as Gopay, Ovo, LinkAja, even Kredivo and Akulaku. While a deeper collaboration scenario between Gojek and Moka has not been delivered.

This is becoming one, out of many Gojek’s acquisitions for Indonesian startups. Previously, the local decacorn also took several startups including Loket, Kartuku, Midtrans, Mapan, and Promogo.

Some acquisitions has succeeded in expanding the Gojek service ecosystem, for example, the consolidation with Loket team that produced the GoTix service. Loket Founder Edy Sulistyo was lined up to lead the entertainment division owned by Gojek.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

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Bizzy Adapts to Consumer’s Behavior, Introducing Tokosmart Agent

With Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB) appeal, several startups have begun to adapt to changes in consumer behavior. Some have to close the service and some are forced to develop new features to adjust to consumer needs.

Bizzy Group, engaged in the logistics (Bizzy Logistics) and distribution (Bizzy Distribution), is also affected by this pandemic situation. This particularly affects the distribution business which is the main pillar of Bizzy’s overall business.

Bizzy Group’s CEO Andrew Mawikere said, stores outside the area currently don’t accept stock orders from salesmen. It is a good opportunity for Tokosmart because the shop owner has switched into application to order inventories. Andrew revealed that Tokosmart’s basket size increased from Rp2 million to Rp3 million from this situation.

Since January 2019, Tokosmart has launched to support the digitalization of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). This application makes it easy and increases the efficiency of store owners to place orders, receive inventory, and payment process. Recently, Andrew said Tokosmart has acquired 54,600 stores and more than 27,000 distribution companies in Indonesia.

“The current situation makes it impossible for us to meet with principals, this disrupts the effectiveness of our business development activities. However, this encourages new opportunities because consumers still need to buy necessities,” he told DailySocial.

In order to facilitate Tokosmart service effectiveness, his team has developed a new beta version that was launched last week, namely Tokosmart Agent. The service is similar to Tokosmart, it’s just that users and selling prices are different.

Meanwhile, Tokosmart Agent directly targets end-user and community leader segments, such as RT or RW leaders in the local area. They can order large quantities of supplies to be distributed to residents in their homes.

“In terms of impact, our [business] platform is quite minimal with this change in behavior, even though the distribution business is negative. It means the offline distribution business shifts to online. The overall distribution is down by 20 percent, but overall GMV is increasing. The decline revenue was blocked by the shifting [distribution companies] that use our platform,” he explained.

Bizzy’s commitment to enter the logistics and distribution sphere, as well as targeting MSMEs, has begun to be seen with efforts to strengthen the digital supply chain ecosystem. After Tokosmart, Bizzy who is now a holding company also launched the Truckway, Bizzy Field Force, and Smart Warehouse applications.

All of these services are built to optimize the operational performance of users in a supply chain, such as distributors, grocery stores, owners and truck drivers.

No longer engaged in the e-procurement sector

Furthermore, Andrew gave a signal that the company will not resume B2B marketplace business. In fact, previously the business that provided e-procurement was targeted to reopen in the fourth quarter of 2020.

In fact, Bizzy decided to close the B2B marketplace service since January. At that time, the company said the closure was only for the time being.

“We are no longer e-procurement service. We don’t plan to open e-procurement anymore, and we don’t know when,” Andrew said.

B2B Marketplace is Bizzy’s first business that was also a pioneer since 2015. Then since January 2019, Bizzy expanded its business scope to SMEs through the launch of Tokosmart. Both the B2B marketplace and Tokosmart have the same procurement activity. It’s just that the market segment and nature of the procurement are different.

B2B Marketplace is for large-scale corporate segments where the products will be consumed by themselves. Meanwhile, Tokosmart serves the purchase of stock inventory which will be distributed back to the grocery stores in the market.

Andrew said, there are several things that create the decision to quit the B2B marketplace. First, procurement activities basically consist of a long series of processes. In other words, he sees that large-scale corporate consumers have a long sell cycle process as well.

“There are many stakeholders involved in decision making. For example, the administration side, it is necessary to submit POs to finance. Because there are many stakeholders, it took a long sell cycle process,” he said.

In addition, he also assessed that the corporate segment in Indonesia is yet to fully adapted to digital because its infrastructure is not ready. The simplest example is the administrative activity that wants to be digitally finally not achieved because there are still many companies that use paper.

It answers that B2B marketplace business people are faced with the same challenges. Market awareness of B2B marketplace services is still low given that companies are not yet aware of the importance of digitizing business processes. This can also mean that there is no full commitment from C-Levels.

On the other hand, the B2B marketplace is considered promising because its business model will be able to guarantee measurable revenue and profit growth in the next 1-2 years.

In addition, the B2B marketplace business is more efficient because businesses do not need to “burn money” to acquire a customer. Unlike the retail segment, B2B’s business nature does not depend on strong competitive discounts or price promos, but on the rationality of needs.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

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Introducing Meyer Food, an Online Grocery App for Chicken Meat Products

Meyer Food launches as a mobile app that facilitates consumers for chicken supply – the whole meat or particular parts. Currently, the service is available for consumers in Jakarta, Banten, Bekasi, Bogor, Depok, Sukabumi, and Surabaya.

Business operation is based in GreenLake City, Tangerang, founded by Renny Lim, also acts as the CEO, and Athalia Permatasari as Co-Founder & Operation Manager. Earlier this year, they’ve selected as one of the startups in the third batch of Gojek Xcellerate program.

The Meyer Food app development was motivated by Renny’s family that runs a chicken meat supply business. Using the application, they intend to reach a wider market share – including B2B and B2C. There is no limit to the number of orders through digital channels, both for large quantities (for businesses such as restaurants) or units (for households).

“Meyer Food sells various types of chicken meat. Starting from whole chicken meat, slices, to processed products such as sausages and corned chicken. Both from broilers and kampong,” Lim told DailySocial.

She further mentioned, “We’ve always wanted to focus on the commodity of chicken meat. We are the first and want to be the biggest (for online grocery applications that focus on chicken products). ”

Meyer Food adds up to the list of startups that focus on online food products. Moreover, urban people are using online grocery services or online marketplace. In addition to selling Meyer Food products through the application, they also have a special page on popular e-commerce.

In terms of related services, penetration in Indonesian market is still centered around big cities like Jabodetabek. Nevertheless, it has large potential. The Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD) Asia said that the value of the online grocery market will grow 198% from US$ 99 billion in 2019 to US$ 295 billion in 2023. Southeast Asia is projected to experience the fastest growth. Indian and Indonesian markets will also be increasingly important for businesses due to their scale.

Team and management of Meyerfood / Meyerfood — Team and management of Meyer Food / Meyer Food

Super tight logistic process

As general information, chicken meat is classified as a vulnerable product, it’ll soon decay without any special packaging. In the distribution process, Meyer Food uses the cold-chain method, the chicken will remain in cold temperatures until the package received by consumers to prevent bacterial development. They also partner with trusted logistics services to ensure high-quality processing.

“The delivery process is carried out by partners (distribution channels) located within a radius of 3 km from the customer’s home. So usually 15 minutes have arrived,” Lim added.

Meyer Food also provides partnerships with a profit-sharing system for each item sold. Currently, the application for partners is available to support business processes. In terms of expansion, they also ensure that every city used suitable distribution channels, therefore, consumers will receive products in good condition.

“We are yet to expand outside Java, our focus is to maximize the enormous potential within this area, both from consumers and business customers. With affordable access to chicken products, the hope is that it can also change consumption patterns in the community because we also have a dream to empower housewives against issues such as stunting,” she said.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

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Konvergen AI Introduces Data Capture Platform to Facilitate Photo Transcription

Public and private sectors in Indonesia have massively digitized their services. The goal is clear, to make existing business processes faster and more efficient. In fact, some digital processes are yet to fully automated. For example, with a digital application, a company still has to go manual on validating the online submission to ensure that the attached files are appropriate.

These problems encouraged Lintang Sutawika, Roan Gylberth, and Timothy Devin to initiate the Konvergen AI. It’s a startup focused on developing artificial intelligence technology for data capture – refers to the process of collecting data from paper or digital documents using optical character recognition (OCR) components. OCR is functioned to produce a transcription of texts in digital format from photos, images or scans.

How does it work? For example, there is an application for shopping records, developers can use the Konvergen AI feature to scan the receipt with a mobile camera. It allows the application to recognize the products and nominal listed, users don’t need to write manually.

“In brief, Konvergen AI’s products and services are used to improve performance efficiency involving manual and repetitive processes, as data input. Currently, the Konvergen AI system can process various documents ranging from identity-related such as eKTPs or Family Cards, and documents such as invoices,” The Co-Founder, Lintang Sutawika said.

Konvergen AI provides data extract service for various purposes / Konvergen AI

He also mentioned, to begin with, the Konvergen AI product was aimed at financial companies, such as banking, insurance, and financing; however, it can also be adjusted to other industries such as export/import and legal processing. As SaaS, products are commercialized through a subscription license.

“Currently, we are assisting a private bank in registering new customers. In this case, our system helps to input customer identity data as stated in documents such as eKTP and NPWP. With this data capture system, the banking registration and checking process should be faster,” he added.

Seed funding from GDP Venture

Konvergen AI was first founded in late 2018 and proceed more than one million documents from a number of customers. They also secured seed funding from GDP Venture, a venture capital actively involved in artificial intelligence startups. Aside from Konvergen AI, GDP also invested in Datasaur, Prosa,ai, 6Estates, Qlue, and Glair.

Founder Konvergen AI Timotius Devin, Lintang Sutawika, dan Roan Gylberth / Konvergen AI — Konvergen AI’s Founders, Timotius Devin, Lintang Sutawika, and Roan Gylberth / Konvergen AI

In terms of founders, Sutawika mentioned the first time the three of them met while studying master’s degree of Computer Science in Universitas Indonesia.

“At first, the three of us ran several computer vision and image processing projects. A simple thing, such as reading or inputting data can become very overwhelming when it was done repetitively and on a large scale. We thought we can engineer the development of artificial intelligence to reduce manual work.”

In actual days, there are many vendors offering data capture services, such as cloud computing providers, they have various cognitive services, one of which is an OCR-based system. Konvergen AI aware of the issue and came up with such differentiation.

“The system we developed is an end-to-end service. For example, some cloud computing service vendors have OCR API services, yet in daily practice, these OCRs still have to be processed before the outputs considered to be suitable for use. The system we’ve developed has been adjusted for non-ideal conditions,” he said.

Closing the interview, he explained his plan in 2020, “We plan to increase the number of ready-to-extract documents and increase the language types, therefore the Konvergen AI can serve more industries and customers, especially in Indonesia.”

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Fore Coffee’s Expansion Plan After Raising 147 Billion Rupiah Funding

After raising a US$9.5 million or around 147 billion Rupiah funding, Fore Coffee looks for more opportunity to expand and added more outlets as currently reach 100 units in total. They’ve also expanded business to Bandung, Surabaya, and Medan. Since 2018, Fore Coffee app is claimed to have positive results in sales with increasing team numbers.

The Co-founder, Elisa Suteja told DailySocial that Fore Coffee has achieved business growth after closing the series A funding in April 2019 with an additional US$1 million for the previous US$8.5 million. It was led by East Ventures. Participated also in this round, SMDV, Pavilion Capital, Agaeti Venture Capital, and some angel investors.

“In addition to the expansion, we’ll also increase collaboration with some local brands,” Suteja said.

Previously, Fore Coffee has strategic partnership with Airy, a partnership-based Accommodation Network Operator (ANO) company in Indonesia. The synergy has marked a strong commitment from both companies towards the 1000 locations movement.

This year, Fore has set some targets. One is to ensure the best service for customers, although they found a change in customers’ behavior.

“Customer behavior will develop along with market developments. I think 2019 is an interesting year for Indonesian customers, with many encouragement to use a number of different digital wallets, influencing how comfortable they feel to transact through their cellphones. We see fewer people using cash nowadays,” she added.

In Indonesia, Fore has several competitors. One of them is the startup backed by Alpha JWC Ventures named Kopi Kenangan. They have just closed around US$ 20 million series A funding in December 2019.

In terms of product, it has countless rivals due to the rising popularity if coffeeshop business, especially targeting the productive age group. Another example of a similar business is Janji Jiwa.

Business challenge during pandemic

Introlducing herbal drinks in time of pandemic

Amid the Covid-19 outbreak, it’s another challenge for Fore Coffee to stay in the game. However, with the existing potential, the company seeks to see and learn from the current conditions, to run ‘business as usual’. The company also seeks to learn from the current crisis to make a better company. Customers can have Fore Coffee as per usual with the delivery service through the Fore, GoFood or GrabFood applications.

Fore has launched a strategic step by introducing a series of Traditional Herbal products to meet the urban demands for local flavored herbal beverages. The two newest menus, Wedang Uwuh and Temulawak Rumbu are available at Fore Coffe outlets and online delivery.

“Through online sales and delivery, Fore’s target is to bring traditional Indonesian native drinks closer to the Indonesian people and easily accessible, therefore, customers can have a taste of it any time, especially during this period. With a simple application, customers can also send drink gifts to family and relatives,” Suteja said.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

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Modalku’s Parent Company to Proceed with Series C Funding Worth Over 625 Billion Rupiah

Modalku’s parent company, Funding Societies, is said to raise series C funding worth of $40 million (over 625 billion Rupiah). It was first published by TechInAsia.

Further details are yet to announce since the process is still ongoing. Modalku’s Co-Founder & CEO, Reynold Wijaya, confirmed the news to DailySocial. “Close soon” he said.

In general, he said the fresh money will be distributed to support all aspects of the company’s strategies, including to empower Indonesia’s SMEs. “We’ll keep monitoring the global economic situation in order for this funding can be optimized.”

The current wave of the Covid-19 pandemic forced Modalku to make various internal and external anticipatory measures. From the external side, the company prepared consideration steps to restructure credit according to the regulator’s recommendations. Reynold claimed his team is currently in discussion with the affected borrowers.

In terms of business, the company has now supported health facilities registered as BPJS Health partners to get early payment from Modalku for the BPJS Health bill until payment is completed. They also provide loan facilities to support the health sector, both suppliers of medical devices and health facilities that require medical devices.

Internally, the company also conducts streamline operations to improve efficiency to simplify the operational process. As Reynold said, in these conditions, it is important for companies to stabilize the company’s pace and continue to grow in a healthy manner. Therefore, he avoids calling the initiative as layoff.

“It is not actually a layoff. In Indonesia, we held streamline operations to be more efficient. Macroeconomic condition due to this pandemic has affected SMEs who happened to be Modalku’s borrowers, hence affected our business operation,” he concluded.

Funding Societies announced Series B funding in 2018 of $25 million. It was led by Softbank Ventures Korea, with participation of Sequoia India, Alpha JWC Ventures, Golden Gate Ventures, Qualgro, and Line Ventures.

Last year, the company received debt funding with an undisclosed value from Triodos Microfinance Fund and Triodos Fair Share Fund. The company also invested in Paper.id in the Series A stage, along with Golden Gate Ventures.

Modalku’s parent company operates in three countries, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Cumulatively, the company has disbursed loans up to Rp14.07 trillion in April 2020. In Indonesia alone, Modalku has channeled Rp3.09 trillion as of March 2020. The total borrowers reached 33,700, consisting of 10,783 institutions and 22,917 individuals.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

[Weekly Updates] KoinWorks and Kargo Technologies Receive Funding; Sharia Feature from LinkAja; and More

Both p2p lending startup Koinworks and smart logistics startup Kargo Technologies have big funding announcement these days, while LinkAja provides a sharia feature for its payment solution. Also in the news is the introduction of Sehatigold, an Indodax’s sister company, as an online gold-based trading/investment platform.

KoinWorks Receives 316 Billion Rupiah Funding from European Financial Institution and Venture Capital

Fintech lending startup, KoinWorks, just announced new funding in two terms, equity and loan. The amount reaches US$20 million or around 316 billion Rupiah. Regarding investors, Quona Capital, EV Growth, and Saison Capital with participation of some others are involved in the equity. In terms of the loan, the company only reveals the two financial institutions that come from Europe.

KoinWorks plans to use the fresh money for financial loans through the fintech lending platform. The new credit feature is provided by an international institution, namely Triodos Bank, global banking from the Netherlands.

Kargo Technologies Announces 504 Billion Rupiah Funding, to Provide Loan Access for Logistics Partners

The logistics marketplace connecting companies with truck services, Kargo Technologies, has announced US$31 million (around 504 billion Rupiah) funding in its Series A round. It was led by Silicon Valley based Tenaya Capital. Also participated in this round, Sequoia India, Intudo Ventures, Amatil X, Agaeti Convergence Ventures, Alter Global, and Mirae Asset Venture Investment.

In this round, Kargo manages to secure funding in the form of debt financing from banks and regional financial institutions.

Kargo Technologies’ CEO, Tiger Fang, said most of the funding will be prioritized for business operations and products development to adjust the current deployment situation of Covid-19. For truck owners, companies can help their cash flow with fast funding products, which are very much needed in the current circumstances.

LinkAja Officially Launches Sharia Feature

After few months of trial, LinkAja officially launched the sharia feature to public. They target to reach one million users for this service.

LinkAja first introduced the sharia features in November last year. One of the most distinguishing features of this sharia is its conventional services as an institution for the deposit (floating funds) to top up balances using the services of Islamic banks.

In order to pursue the target, LinkAja has collaborated with 1000 mosques, 11 waqf institutions, 23 zakat institutions, and 67 donation institutions.

Introducing Indodax’s Sister Company Sehatigold, an E-commerce Platform for Gold

Sehatigold has transformed as an online gold trading platform. It is headed by Denny Ardhiyanto and one of the founders is major shareholder in Indodax. The platform was made to solve two problems in buying and selling gold, for a very small to the loss of profit margin when trading gold, also the affordability. Sehatigold offers solutions by selling gold starting from 0.01 grams or having a nominal value of IDR 10,000 without any additional costs.

Sehatigold has several main services. In addition to buying and selling gold, customers can exchange the gold savings they buy online into physical gold in the form of jewellery or precious metals. Then, the platform allows users to trade gold.

Investor’s Perspective on “Femtech” Startup Potential

DailySocial observed around 12 startups with female founders or consists of female C-levels bagged funding during 2019. It is not only startups with female-oriented products but also those engaged in SaaS technology, healthtech, and social commerce.

“The fact shows two interesting points, that more women are setting up startups and more investors are looking for and investing in female-founded companies. I expect this trend to continue increasing as these two points become highlighted,” GK Plug and Play’s Director Aaron Nio said.

Although investments are usually have looked at no gender and depend on the capabilities and qualities of the founder and execution of the business model, many advantages are claimed only by female leaders.

In the Kartini Day edition, DailySocial aims to find out investor’s interests and expectations towards female startup leaders / femtech in Indonesia.

Providing social impact

The highlight of female-founded startups is that most of them build businesses based on a social impact. Starting from a marketplace to embrace more women towards beauty services businesses and products that empower women for partners.

“We have found and have had several dialogues with female-founded startups of various categories. From social commerce, healthtech in specific areas such as genetic startups and consumer wearables to aquaculture. We looked at more women taking leadership roles to solve Indonesia’s health and social problems,” Pegasus Tech Ventures SEA Manager, Justin Jackson said.

Pegasus Tech Ventures has invested in several female-founded startups in Indonesia. Among them are Populix (Eileen Kamtawijoyo), AwanTunai (Windy Natriavi), Hijup (Diajeng Lestari), and Infradigital (Indah Maryani).

In general, female-founded startups usually have a more organized, structured, and empathic culture.

East Ventures fully understands this potential. This venture capital company has invested in Base (Yaumi Fauziah), Greenly (Liana Gonta Widjaja), Nusantics (Sharlini Eriza Putri), Fore (Elisa Suteja), and Sociolla (Chrisanti Indiana), Nalagenetics (Astrid Irwanto & Levana Sani).

“To date, we have had around 10% of female founders in our network and we are grateful to have worked with them and expected to increase representation. They are indeed extraordinary individuals whose work deserving full respect,” East Ventures’ Partner Melisa Irene said.

Some VCs have a bias towards startups with social impact orientation due to the market is lacking or the founder is not sufficiently focused on shareholders’ demand. However, as startups with social impacts are getting successful, more and more VCs are interested to invest in a kind of startup profile.

“Female leaders are proven to be able to build a more collaborative team, transparent, produce faster with more creative solutions. They can create a more reliable and trustworthy work environment,” Karissa Adelaide from Jungle Ventures Investment Team said.

Challenge for the female leaders

Although opportunities for women leaders are increasingly diverse, there are still some difficulties to avoid, including not yet the lack of female founders or the limited access to capital obtained. On the other hand, the income earned by female leaders tends to be less than male leaders.

“Women entrepreneurs are often encountered obstacles, not only in Indonesia but also to other countries in Southeast Asia. Currently, there are still many of them who struggle to get support and capital. As a result, in the technology sector women are still underrepresented and underpaid,” Adelaide added.

Another challenge remains is the lack of government support to create opportunities for entrepreneurs and women leaders to build businesses. In a way, to encourage more young women to build a venture that targets the technology industry, not just the creative industry.

“Female founders are great role models, both in terms of new ideas, also how they create and grow their teams. We have seen strong friendships and extraordinary partnerships among women entrepreneurs. One of the most amazing features of a female founder is meeting and talking with other founders to share tips for success,” Surge and Sequoia Capital India’s Managing Director, Rajan Anandan said.

The names included in the East Ventures portfolio such as Grace Tahir (Medico), Amanda Cole (CEO of Sayurbox), Marianne Rumantir (Co-Founder Member), Cynthia Tenggara (Parenting Head Orami), and Gita Sjahrir (Co-founder Ride) have risen as a mentor and role model of female entrepreneurs in Indonesia. In fact, female leadership is not limited to the role of a high profile mentor.

“As Digitaraya observed more female founders in the community. Our portfolio consists of more than 100 beginner alumni, 54.95% have female founders or co-founders. This is truly an extraordinary achievement for women entrepreneurs, and we only expect the number to grow continuously,” Digitaraya’s Managing Director, Nicole Yap said.

Startups with at least one female founder are usually considered offering a higher level of trust and the ability to gather and manage teams to deliver results. They also tend to provide more projections based on data, accuracy, and are more open to new ideas.

Investor’s support for female leaders

Indonesia has become one of the countries in Southeast Asia that encourages many investors to invest. Various programs and activities are carried out by related parties to support the startup ecosystem. Investors claim to support and welcome the growth of female-founded startups.

“In Jungle Ventures, we realize that we can and must be able to be a catalyst. We are proud to have started and invested in several strong and innovative companies led by female founders in our portfolio, but who are we to get complacent. We have a view to empowering the entrepreneurial generation women’s technology that is innovative, motivated and has great determination in Southeast Asia and Indonesia,” Adelaide said.

Another support provided by investors is connections and communities that can help female leaders to meet and share experiences. It is considered the most ideal way to foster confidence and a strong ecosystem for women leaders.

“In Sequoia India and Surge, we intend to create a safe community for women founders to connect, work and support each other through their entrepreneurial journey. Through Sequoia Spark, we hope to help other founders gain access to the right people and care about their success. “And of course willing to invest,” Rajan said.

CyberAgent Capital Indonesia‘s Investment Analyst and Office Representative, Kevin Wijaya agreed on this. They often hold casual discussion with the local startup community. In this activity, female founders or prospective women entrepreneurs can ask about the right way to obtain funding from VC.

“To encourage more women in the technology industry, the team often suggests startups, including CyberAgent’s portfolio, to recruit more women into the organization. This act is for diversity in startups can occur positively,” Kevin added.

Activities such as competitions and partnerships with related parties can also bring up new potential innovations in the ecosystem, which is expected to be embraced by female founders. The move was carried out by Pegasus Tech Ventures to see first hand the potential for startups.

“We held a Startup World Cup Indonesia competition in partnership with Wild Digital in November 2019, and 30% of the top finalists came from female-founded startups. This number is projected to increase every year. In addition, we also see more companies actively innovate in our pipeline comes from startups female-founded startups,” Justin said.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian