Cashlez Aims for IPO in 2020, Targeting 100 Billion Rupiah Funding

Cashlez, known as a payment gateway company, has claimed a significant business growth in 2019. More aggressive, they are promptly to plan an IPO, precisely in March 2020. The schedule has been fixed for public expose at the end of this month.

Quoted from Investor Daily, Cashlez plans to release 20% of shares to the public targeting Rp100 billion funding. One of the post-IPO plans, the company is to acquire a fintech company engaged in non-cash toll transaction transactions and parking management applications.

“The company that we are going to acquire is engaged in the same field, but they are more specific in making non-cash toll transactions or parking applications. They also make vending machines,” Cashlez’ CEO, Teddy Setiawan said.

Partnership with banks and non-bank financial institutions will be managed to improve service quality. Currently, Cashlez already runs with around 6 thousand partners. Their target for this year is to gather 4 thousand new merchants.

Optimism through 2019

Throughout 2019, Cashlez’s total merchant is said to have doubled. The number of transactions grew by 200% and GTV increased by 180% from the previous year. The achievement has exceeded the target.

Furthermore, the rate for card-based payment method has increased by 182%, e-commerce payment is at 180%, digital payments including electronic wallets increased by 60%.

In 2019, the company has received Series A funding from Sumitomo Corporation. They also expand its coverage, up to late 2019 they have operated in Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, Yogyakarta, Malang, Bali, Medan, and Makassar. Cashlez is very serious in managing collaboration. In addition to banks, they also partnered with e-money services such as LinkAja, Ovo and GoPay.

IPO is currently being one of the ways for startups to raise funds. There are some local startups had claimed and planning to conduct an IPO. In terms of fintech, KinerjaPay had prior to IPO, Netzme was following the step.

In the payment gateway segment, Cashlez currently in competition with some companies such as Midtrans, Doku, Xendit, Duitku, and others.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

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Printerous Secured Series A Funding, Currently Focusing on Expansion

The online platform for printing and packaging, Printerous announced series A funding from BAce Capital, AddVentures, GDP Ventures and Gobi Agung. Sovereign’s Capital, the previous investor also participated.

The investment is to be used for developing technology infrastructure and expanding coverage to 30 new cities in Indonesia, including to develop a sustainable business model. Pinterous is said to be profitable, therefore, the recent cash will be focused on expansion, in terms of business and products.

“The printing market in Indonesia has reached US$14.5 billion in 2019, this is quite big for the public’s majorty are still using conventional printing. This is encouraged us to improve technology innovation to help SMEs with solution for design, printing to distribution. The online printing innovation is to create a seamless, efficient, and transparent process,” Pinterous’ Founder & CEO, Kevin Osmond told DailySocial.

Since its debut in 2012, Printerous has collaborated with more than 250 printing merchants and supported more than 35 thousand business players. In the journey, they still have some issues, including market education. It’s because the service is quite new in Indonesia.

“We partner with printing and logistics partners, so we can create an easy, transparent and cost-effective printing solution. This business model has been implemented in the emerging markets such as Japan, China, the United States, and Europe, where the so-called-conventional printing industry transformed into digital,” Kevin said.

GDP Venture’s CEO, Martin Hartono said to continue to support the local startups in order to develop the domestic industry. “We always support local startups in Indonesia to develop new solutions, one of which is Printerous in the printing and packaging industry.”

“Printerous can empower the traditional industry using its technology and additional services, therefore, it can be very advantageous for the printing business and users. Printerous is one of Indonesia’s startups we believe to have big potential,” Mulyono said as BAce Capital’s Managing Director.

Previously, the company has received pre-series A funding worth of 18 billion Rupiah, led by Golden Gate Ventures, followed by Sovereign’s Capital and Gunung Sewu Kencana.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

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Starting Out as E-Commerce, Orami Transforms Into Parenting Platform

Orami, usually known as a niche e-commerce site for mom and kids products, has recently launched the “Orami Parenting” app to tighten its position as an all-in-one parenting app. The launch is held along with the 7th anniversary. The step is said to be in line with its vision to simplify the parenting stuff.

Orami’s Head of Parenting, Cynthia Tenggara told DailySocial, the presence of Orami Parenting does not mean to disregard the e-commerce business. This decision was taken due to the increasing needs of mothers instead of just shopping.

“On our internal research, they need more than that [e-commmerce], they need a support system, original content, and community. Starting there, we finally developed the application,” Cynthia said, Wednesday (12/2).

She also said, last year when she joined the Orami, it was the beginning of Orami Parenting initiative. Cynthia was the former founder & CEO of Berrykitchen which has now been acquired by Yummy Corp.

Orami’s initial business was e-commerce and has been the company’s core business since 2013. Product expansion begins with the presence of the Orami Forum in 2017, a solid foundation to be further developed as the Orami Community in 2018.

This community has thousands of members come from various areas in 75 cities. They are majorly located in Greater Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya and Yogyakarta.

Orami Parenting is a community-based parenting application. In this space, parents can have an online discussion via chat with fellow parents with the same interest.

There are online consulting classes to gather them with experts in childcare and have direct interaction through the online chat platform provided.

In addition, users can read various articles related to parenting in various formats including writing, visual, audio and video; gain special access to enjoy promos at various merchants and partners; and shop on the Orami e-commerce site.

“All the features we’ve been working on are always through the inspiration from mothers as our users.”

Cynthia also explained, the team isn’t focused on the monetization strategy in the application, at this time. Although, it’s quite possible in the future.

“We are now focusing on making an impact related to parenting, how to acquire more mothers to join and have a good support system.”

This application allows Orami to expand coverage throughout Indonesia. Also, there are partners from outside Java island for parents’ needs. This benefit is expected to have more impact due to no ‘privilege’ impression between members who live in big cities with the others.

“We also create a community based on domicile, therefore, if there’s a group of mothers in Papua, we can create a separate group.”

The complete business plan

Cynthia also revealed the future plans for feature development, one of which is to facilitate the search for babysitters. Moreover, the forum used by community members to share information with each other, including babysitter recommendations.

Furthermore, it is the wholesale shopping feature in order to get a much cheaper price. “We are currently developing because shopping with the community offers a much cheaper price. The main feature is based on internal research and the aspirations of mothers.”

This year, Chyntia is targeting to increase the number of app downloads to 150 thousand downloads. The new Orami Parenting app has officially introduced today, (12/2).

Orami's CEO, Ferry Tenka / Orami — Orami’s CEO, Ferry Tenka / Orami

Separately, regarding the e-commerce services, Orami’s CEO, Ferry Tenka is targeting to gradually expand shipping coverage for more users can have access to their services. About 70% -80% of Orami Commerce orders come from Java.

The company is to open a warehouse located in Medan as user penetration is getting high. Currently, Orami has two warehouses located in Bekasi and Surabaya for shipping around the area.

In addition, Orami has its own fleet of one-day-delivery service, however, it only applies to short-distance shipments. When the delivery goes too far, it will be handled by a third party courier company.

“We have just launched a warehouse in Surabaya, aiming to serve buyers from Eastern Indonesia. This year we plan to add another warehouse in Medan, “Ferry said.

Orami currently has around 30 to 40 thousand product SKUs provided by 400-500 brands. There are nine categories of products, ranging from children’s fashion, gears, diapers, children’s food, baby gear, baby travel gear, also children’s milk and nutrition.

Last year, the transaction volume is estimated at 400 thousand. It’s targeting all the company’s business strategies to be able to realize the ambition to process 1 million transactions this year.

The Orami site is said to have been visited by five million unique visitors each month. Of that number, around 700 thousand of them have registered. Moreover, 500 thousand of them already transact in Orami.

“Our target is trying to expand the unique visitor range. There are 20 million mothers who have children under the age of seven as our target users,” he concluded.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

B2B as The Most Suitable Business Scheme for Hardware Startups in Indonesia

Iglohome is a Singapore-based startup. The smart access system product developer, it’s a door lock and key equipped with the technology component. They are currently implementing the solution with proptech and OTA partners, such as Airbnb, BookingSync, Zip Rent, and others. Objectively, it’s to provide property owners with easy tracking of their “locking” access to their customers in a digital way.

In Indonesia, there is Sugar Technology, a startup that develops similar devices. It is named “smart padlock”, the user can open a padlock using a registered fingerprint. Up until now, the target market revolves around common users’ lifestyles, although it is possible to perform B2B partnerships.

The recent one is Zulu, a startup (originally non-tech), a helmet developer about a year ago received funding from Gojek’s decacorn. As a manifestation of product innovation, the helmet is equipped with Bluetooth to connect with smartphones. This smart helmet can be utilized for connectivity, such as calling, receiving voice notifications, and giving orders to Google Assistance.

Struggling to acquire users

Running a hardware business is not an easy peasy for startups in may regions. In July 2017, a headset developer, Jawbone hardware developer for headset, fitness tracker, and the wireless speaker has collapsed after 10 years operation, although having secured US$930 million funding. The shutdown is due to the limited market share of its products. They offer the products directly to consumers, with gimmick as a modern lifestyle support.

There are several reasons supposing this failure. From lack of consumer demand, high burning rates, decreasing enthusiasm after the initial fundraising process (for startups debut with crowdfunding), to the product strategy mistakes.

Unfortunately, several other well-funded startups experienced the same thing. From CB Insight’s notes, below are the seven startups in the hardware vertical that did not succeed in sustaining business growth:

CB Insight also noted over 400 failed hardware startups, most of which are targeting direct consumers.

On the other side, investment for the hardware startups is actually well-distributed. Aside from investors, startups can raise fund through the crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter or IndieGogo, targeting cash from direct consumers while acquiring the user base. High participation in these programs helped increase the enthusiasm of hardware startup founders counting their luck.

Based on the current trend, software-based products are considered to have faster scalability, with a more dynamic lifecycle, compared to hardware products. However, it’s not impossible for handset developers to be successful. In fact, some of the big business achievements involve hardware manufacturers in the growth stage.

Beats, Nest, Oculus Rift, and several other producers’ names were able to “exit” through the acquisition or share listings. Even though in small numbers, there have been 17 hardware startups that have succeeded in IPO for the decade. While there are dozens of startups per year that have been successfully acquired or have the support of larger technology companies.

B2B as the ideal business scheme

Recently, there are some primary business models run by hardware-manufacture startups. First, B2C, marketing his products to consumers in general. Second, the B2B, working together – both partially and fully – in manufacturing products for partner companies. However, many are also doing a B2B2C approach, with different product variants.

In the midst of startup’s high failure rate of selling their products directly to consumers – in the context of new (technology-based) startups – the B2B business model is becoming more interesting. From the strategic partnership, hardware products can be juxtaposed with a potential market share in the growing business vertical of digital startups, including in Indonesia.

The property sector, for example. Based on the H1 Affordability Sentiment Index 2019 data, the very high prices encouraged more Indonesians to live in rental homes. In fact, according to the Indonesia Property Watch 2018 survey, almost half of millennials in Jakarta choose to live in a boarding house.

Considering the opportunity, Igloohome invited YukStay in the strategic partnership in Indonesia to apply its products in several of its managed properties. YukStay is known to offer hospitality services for apartment rentals and boarding. Not only listings, but they also help property owners do management. The service is currently cover the Greater Jakarta and Surabaya.

As for ride-hailing, according to Gojek’s internal data, per semester 1/2019 they already have 2 million driver-partners. This was a blessing for Zulu, who became a strategic partner to accommodate partners’ main driving equipment – consisting of helmets and protective jackets.

Other companies that started out as B2C eventually adopted the B2B model through acquisition by the big players. The Oculus Rift handset for example, which is now an exclusive Facebook product, Nest is now optimized and marketed with Google technology, or Beats that has become Apple’s endorsed product.

More players to come

UMG Idealab has become one of the active venture capitalists in supporting hardware startups, either investing or acting as a venture builder. Two hardware products being prepared are the Widya Wicara smart speaker and the passenger drone named Frogs. They’re ambitious enough to make a drone as a passenger taxi, the product is to be further developed at one of the R&D centers in Yogyakarta.

A drone-passanger developed by UMG Idealab in Yogyakarta / UMG Idealab

Widya Wicara itself was designed to be a lifestyle device. Equipped with voice-based commands, it is expected to be a personal assistant device in performing several tasks, such as reminders. The speaker-based smart assistant is indeed a lifestyle device that deserves to be taken into account. Its popularity has increased since 2018, followed by the maturity of Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology which has become smarter in recognizing human language.

With the increasing popularity of some products, for example, eFishery. It’s using IoT to help shrimp and fishpond businesses in sowing feed automatically. There is also Jala, targeting the fisheries sector with IoT-based products. Both apply the B2B business model and for now, it appears to be well-received by consumers.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Lodi Adopts Cainiao’s Concept to Increase Warehouse Utility through Technology

Logistic startup industry is having a newcomer of fulfillment and last-mile delivery service named Lodi. Actually, Lodi has been established in late 2018 and began operating the next year.

Lodi offers a concept similar to Cainiao, Alibaba’s giant logistic in China, of course, with more localized services.

Lodi’s Managing Director, Zico Gosal explained, logistics players have been relied on heavy assets, having warehouses in several areas with its own fleet on running the business.

Meanwhile, not all their assets, warehouse, for example, possessed high utility. When it’s empty, there’s an overhead cost. This concept is not applicable in the digital technology era.

Therefore, the Cainiao concept with light asset and collaborative spirit with other logistics players in the fulfillment center, also the last-mile delivery, is more suitable for adoption.

“We’re currently focused on expanding our warehouse location by looking for partners due to our goal to reduce logistics costs,” he told DailySocial.

Lodi has been connected with fulfillment partners such as DB Schenker to provide a 10,500 square meters warehouse located in Marunda, North Jakarta using the shared user concept. Another warehouse is a 4 thousand square meters area located in Cawang.

DB Schenker is a global logistics player with more than 40 years of experience. Its entrance to the North Jakarta warehouse location brought high optimism for Lodi to attract more partners.

In that capacity, Zico claimed Lodi could accommodate 50 thousand orders every day. However, it’s still on progress in order to be achieved.

Lodi’s business model and user target

In addition to acquiring warehouse owners to rent their property to Lodi, the company also partners with logistics companies for last-mile delivery to consumers. The big names, such as JNE, SiCepat, Lion Parcel, and First Logistic.

Lodi is targeting users from brand owners, resellers, and sellers in the marketplace or social commerce platforms with over 100 daily order capacity. It’s different with capacity under 100 orders. It’s a condition where sellers still capable to handle using in-house.

Chief Commercial Officer, Dina Effendy added, from the current upper limit, they usually solve the problem by recruiting more people. Whereas, they should prioritize business development.

Lodi is here to offer a solution, for all their products to be entrusted and the entire shipping process will be handled directly by Lodi.

“Users can use the dashboard we provided to monitor the entire movement of incoming orders. All systems are integrated. When goods are stored in warehouses, they can immediately be restocked,” Effendy added.

They did not mention how many sellers have used Lodi as an option for fulfillment. When the user find interest in Lodi’s solution there is a contract system for a year.

Throughout this year, Lodi is to focus on adding the next warehouse location in Java. They targeting to have an additional 2 thousand square meter warehouse. Next year, they’re going to expand to Sumatra and Sulawesi.

They’re also to enhance warehouse functions, in order to store more complex products such as frozen food, chemicals, and medicines, for more users can use Lodi.

Lodi has secured seed funding from local investors with undisclosed value. These fresh funds were obtained in its initial stage. Zico admitted that the company is currently looking for series A funding worth of US$3 million to US$ 5 million (around Rp41 billion to Rp68 billion).

Lodi team now consists of 40 people, almost half of which were commercial teams.

“We have started a roadshow looking for investors, it is estimated for two to three more months to be announced,” he explained.

Logistics players from startups to conventional business / DailySocial

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Literally, Indonesia Is Yet to Welcome the 5G Era

Five years ago, the Indonesian government expected to start implementing the 5G network in 2020. Today, weeks after 2020 started, commercializing is yet to happen. In some countries, such as the United States and South Korea, 5G is now available.

Before we get into commercializing, even the regulation is not ready. What the public aware is, the Ministry of Communication and Informatics (Kominfo) is currently preparing the regulation and its derivatives. 5G technology is projected to run five years later.

One thing that is on progress is the frequency that will be used to implement the 5G network. The 700MHz band as said to be the key spectrum is not yet discharged from analog TV. Meanwhile, the migration of analog TV to digital is to be carried out in 2024.

In terms of timeline, this plan is quite realistic. Reasonably, there is no ecosystem to support the development of 5G technology in Indonesia. In fact, there is still a long journey to get there.

The Minister of Communication and Information, Johnny G. Plate even told us not to rush for 5G technology to be immediately commercialized. “The trial isn’t even finished,” he said as quoted by Detik.

Do we really need 5G?

In more developed countries, such as the US and South Korea, the 5g technology is now available / Unsplash

Five years can be a short period of time in the global dynamic competition and massive technology development. Not mentioning the industrial revolution of 4.0. If we get loose for a minute, there’s a chance we can get far left behind from the neighbor countries.

Moreover, 5G is no longer about how we can stream without buffering or downloading movies faster than a day. This fifth-generation cellular technology can be a game-changer for human life, industry and the country’s economy.

5G guarantees extraordinary speeds – though not yet proven – one of which is to transfer data at 800 Gbps. 5G can also handle thousands of devices and sensors simultaneously. Therefore, it’s not surprising 5G is called the fastest telecommunications protocol.

The people who benefit most from the implementation of 5G are not data and cellular customers, but the industry. Moreover, the manufacturing sector is the main pillar of the country’s economy.

The use of the Internet of Things (IoT), automation, big data to real-time analysis in the manufacturing industry is said to be able to increase productivity and great efficiency. Layers of business processes that used to be done manually will be run with automation.

A T Kearney consulting firm, as quoted by Business Times, predicts the adoption of 5G has a devastating impact on the industrial sector in Southeast Asia of US$ 147 billion in 2025.

A total of US $ 81 billion of the previous number mentioned will be contributed by the trade, transportation and financial industries. Then the value is to increase by another US$ 59 billion if the manufacturing sector utilizes the Internet of Things (IoT).

In reality, Indonesia is yet to call for 5G. First, the circulation of our telecommunications infrastructure is still uneven. Internet penetration alone is not 100 percent. There are thousands of populations still using 2G mobile phones.

Second, supporting ecosystems, such as assemblers company and its equipment, are not ready. When it’s time to generate the domestic industry, we have to think about people who develop it – it is impossible to depend on foreign countries.

Third, we have no examples of appropriate cases or use cases to be implemented. Thus, why bother implementing technology with very expensive switching costs.

Not to mention the literacy and technology adoption issue. What should be a concern – when targeting the industrial sector – is how they perceive the importance of technology implementation in business processes.

The government alone cannot assure the ideal time when the 5G technology can be implemented in Indonesia. The Director-General of Resources and Equipment of Post and Information Technology (SDPPI) Kominfo Ismail revealed that there are many technical issues should be discussed further.

Ismail said the implementation of 5G is not only a matter of frequency availability but also the readiness of the ecosystem and monetization of the 5G infrastructure that was built. “Therefore, we are still focusing on trials with operators now,” he told DailySocial.

The explosion of data consumption

Adoption and Consumption of digital content in Indonesia is increasing / Unsplash

As previously mentioned, 5G is an investment to compete in the global market. We don’t need to re-evaluate when 3G enters the Indonesian market and it takes more than 10 years to encourage its penetration.

Ecosystem development should be the government’s priority as the first step to remaining consistent with its digital economic vision. And the industrial sector can make a contribution to drive digital economic growth, not just startups and corporates.

In addition, the urgency to implement 5G technology is getting inevitable given the increasing consumption of internet data in Indonesia. With a total population exceeds 250 million, a data explosion can occur along with the massive trends in the use of video-based services.

In an era where mobile content is getting very popular, dozens of people are streaming video and music simultaneously. The highly cited increase in data consumption can disrupt the dense spectrum.

The Chairperson of the Indonesian IoT Association Teguh Prasetya agreed on this when highlighting the urgency of implementing 5G. He said, user demand for applications that require high bandwidth, low latency, and high speed will increase in the next three years. It is not limited in a residential area but also in industrial estates and big cities.

Another thing to be highlighted is the readiness of related ecosystem, starting from the providers of devices, networks, applications, and content. It is related to the investment side, both from capital expenditure, operational costs and human resources.

Therefore, Teguh continued, the government needs to consider the growth of domestic supporting ecosystems, starting from technology providers, system integrators, communities and domestic producers who can play a role in the development of 5G in the country.

“As to judge from the three things above, our concentration and priority at the moment are to focus on the distribution of broadband to all levels of society in Indonesia by optimizing the existing 4G technology in addition to other fixed broadband,” he said.

Use case optimization

Meanwhile, MDI Ventures’ Head of Investor Relations & Capital Raising, Kenneth Li discussed the importance of using the right case for the 5G implementation. He emphasized on the use case that is not easily replaced by 4G or its predecessor technology.

As an example, streaming activity. 3G technology was developed to allow streaming activities, while 2G technology can hardly do this.

However, in the context of developing IoT, he said that there are still many developers who embrace the concept of product development that can be substituted with technology.

“They still apply the concept ‘best with 5G but work on 4G or 3G‘. In fact, if they thought about creating technology that only works for 5G, the market penetration will be very slow, “Kenneth told DailySocial.

The above concept is considered possible to slow the growth of 5G technology, particularly with use cases related to IoT. Thus, he emphasized on developing use cases that also applies to the use of the current technology.

“With more and more use case primary, in the future [development of use cases] I think all is good,” he added.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Validating “New Retail” Startups in Indonesia

New retail has been trying to connect traders with technology. The objective is to facilitate business in leveraging benefits and consumer coverage. In terms of concept, the approach is to empower some previous features with mature implementation in the e-commerce platform to conventional retail. It’s not digitizing the whole business process, but aiming for certain aspects that weren’t optimized.

Concept	Details
Payment	Integrating payment applications, such as digital wallets or pay later feature, for payment options to customers.
Supply Chain	Providing digital access to traders to connect with FMCG product distributors for more variant products at affordable prices.
Customer Experience	Improving customer experience by providing purchasing apps. Some in the form of loyalty programs giving point credits for every transaction
Digital Product	Allowing traders to serve purchasing or payment activities of various digital products, such as PPOB tax payment, train ticket, e-money top-up, and many more.

Those four models are getting adopted by local startups with various lines of products or retail segments. The public, either traders or buyers, are adjusting to the transformation. It was proven by the well-developed new retail startups.

The beginning of new retail in Indonesia

In 2014, Kudo (an acronym for Kios untuk Dagang) or kiosk for trading was launched. The service is to allow everyone, especially kiosk owners, to be able to sell any kinds of e-commerce products. The buyers allowed to choose any kinds of products and make payments through the kiosk. The concept was proven successful, as Kudo has been used by 2.6 million partners and become the biggest agent-based service in Indonesia.

Post Grab acquisition in 2019, they rebranded into GrabKios. The business model gets adjusted, from an e-commerce digital arm to focus more on the partner’s side to facilitate various kinds of payments, such as electricity bills, PDAM, and many more.

“Through technology, GrabKios expands the types of services offered by stalls such as credit and various bill payments, reduces the cost of stalls by providing convenience for traditional stalls to order merchandise (wholesale), and provides access to additional business capital and financial services through money transfer services (domestic remittance) and micro insurance and cash loans will be provided,” Head of GrabKios, Agung Nugroho said.

Furthermore, some e-commerce platforms are following the trend, such as Mitra Tokopedia and Bukalapak. It’s the same concept, allowing partners to become a digital arm to facilitate consumers for purchasing goods. The online-to-offline approach becoming the best extension among broadband expansion and digital literacy in the community.

Mitra Tokopedia program is targeting kiosk in several areas to market their products

Entering the year 2018, Kopi Kenangan has debuted with 121 billion Rupiah funding from Alpha JWC Ventures. The investment is said to be focused on business development through technology, one is to launch an app for store locator, ordering, payment support and loyalty program.

The well-received business model in the market providing a well-poured investment. After a few months, Kopi Kenangan announced follow-on funding worth of 282 billion Rupiah from Sequoia. In late 2019, they had secured Series A funding from several investors, including Arrive, Serena Ventures, Caris LeVert, and Jonathan Neman. They have managed to sell 3 million cups of coffee per month.

There is also Fore Coffee, a startup founded by East Ventures with similar products and approaches. The latest news, they’ve announced follow-on funding worth of 118 billion Rupiah from East Ventures, SMDV, Pavilion Capital, Agaeti Venture Capital, Insignia Ventures Partners, and several angel investors.

“We also use various technologies, from our own mobile app to the existing technologies, such as Moka to monitor payments, Member.id for loyalty platforms, and Go-Food, GrabFood, and TravelokaEats as distribution platforms,” Fore Coffee’s Co-Founder & CEO Robin Boe explained the technology role in his startup.

Wahyoo also offers a new retail approach, targeting warteg (small restaurants) by providing digital access to the supply chain. The Founder & CEO, Peter Shearer said they have partnered with at least 7000 merchants from various regions. They’ve also received seed funding from Agaeti Ventures, Kinesys Group, Chapter 1 Ventures, SMDV, East Ventures, and Rentracks.

There are also some other startups offering new retail concepts with various business approaches.

The momentum

Kopi kenangan product, beverage at affordable price

Numbers of partners, transaction value and capital flows received imply that new retail has been quite successful to validate the concept for the past few years. On further observation, they are prudent in placing their products to the most suitable customer segment.

Take the example of previously mentioned coffee products startup, they see a trend of “daily coffee” among millennials. To the existing coffee shop, as well-known Starbucks, the standard price is quite high. They offer beverages at relatively cheaper prices, but with improved customer experience.

It is very likely what startups like Kudo did, that is targeting partners from the countryside.

The large investment stream will allow players to perform the “growth hacking” strategy which has been successfully applied by startups in other verticals, such as ride-hailing or fintech. They could increase traction with a series of promo or massive expansion at many locations – and indeed, all the players are heading that way.

With a broader market share, more mature players and enthusiast investors; will new retail be the next big thing in the following years?

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Zenius Plans Business Growth, to Rocus on Tech Development and Content Production

The huge market potential in the edtech sector in Indonesia has encouraged Zenius to accelerate business growth in order to acquire more students while raising positive retention.

Zenius’ CEO Rohan Monga told DailySocial, after receiving US$20 million Series A funding (around 260 billion Rupiah), the company plans to develop technology, increase the variety of content, as well as recruit talent to strengthen the team. Aside from Northstar Group, Kinesys Group and BeeNext also participated in this round.

“The power of online learning platform positioned is the ability to analyze and diagnose each student based on collected data. Using a personal approach, it is expected to provide students with improved abilities. In order to create technology, it requires a very large cost.

The company also plans to launch massive marketing activities. Regarding marketing activities, Rohan said it will be similar to other players, all online and offline activities will be carried out as authentic. Zenius’ engineer team are based in Indonesia and India, with the objective to build technology that supports business processes.

Zenius focus as an edtech platform

Prior to the CEO position, Rohan Monga was a former Gojek’s COO and contributed to establishing first Indonesia’s decacorn at the early stage. He also the angel investor for Zenius’ seed funding. The sharp vision and mission of Zenius’ Co-Founder, Sabda PS who currently serves as Chief Educational Officer at Zenius, is one reason Monga is digging into the edtech sector in Indonesia.

“I am very enthusiastic about Sabda’s vision and Zenius team to present an even better online learning platform. This is in line with my experience mission in the technology era and my passion for social impact,” Monga said.

Was founded in 2004, Zenius claims to have formulated a learning approach using technology that prioritizes conceptual understanding and thinking model. The basic competency is to form a deep understanding of scientific concepts, not just a matter of remembering and memorizing.

Therefore, students should ideally have a good mindset after learning and be able to adapt and find solutions to the current problems they’re facing. The thinking ability is quite essential for future generations to adapt, collaborate and compete.

“I am very happy and glad for Monga to join Zenius. Monga, with his character that is focused on solutions and has deep insight and extraordinary experience in his field, is the most appropriate person for this role. I hope to encourage Zenius’ growth to continue improving the education sector in Indonesia,” said Sabda.

Zenius offers several types of products, the core business is Zenius.net, an online learning website contains more than 80 thousand leaning videos and hundreds of thousands of practice question

Zenius has several types of products, with the main product being Zenius.net, an online learning website that contains more than 80 thousand learning videos and hundreds of thousands of practice questions for elementary and high school levels that have been adapted to the national curriculum. Throughout 2019, the site has been accessed by more than 12.8 million users. Zenius has also launched mobile applications on Google Play and the App Store.

“I predict within the next 2-3 years there will be more and more edtech startups in Indonesia to bring new innovations around the online learning platform with diverse skills material to formal education as we have,” Rohan said.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

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Optimizing Passion and Digital Platform as Money Machine

Business through social media has made everything possible, including “self commercialize”. This kind of business is highly related to one’s passion. Those who are diligent and passionate about certain activities are very likely to make the money rain through it.

In #SelasaStartup’s first week of 2020, Rade Tampubolon as the CEO of SociaBuzz taught us to take a peek at opportunities and tips on turning what we love into a source of livelihood.

The internet, especially the massive use of social media, has become a crucial bridge of connection. People used to do a hobby for their own satisfaction, nowadays, other people can appreciate it through digital platforms. Thus, it is not surprising whether they’d be willing to reach into their pocket to support their favorite creators.

Tampubolon called the people who enjoy the content as true fans. They are the ones who will be loyal to the creator’s works and willing to contribute financially in order to keep the work continue. This is what he refers to as a passion economy.

With Dailysocial, Rode has shared some tips to do for those who interested in living the passion economy.

“Passion and technology are getting connected. There’s a money velocity within the association. There’s a market for any kind of passion,” he said.

Find your passion

Most people have at least one favorite activity or hobby. This is the very beginning of everything. Finding something we love, something we’ll keep doing whether it provides us no income yet wasting our time.

As previously mentioned, almost every activity has its market. For example, content creator, writer, photographer, illustrator, make up artist, podcaster, musician, and many more.

Rode has advice for those who already find their passion to not afraid to explore. Exploration is needed for their works to have its own uniqueness. The more unique, the easier his work to be discovered by the public.

Building a tribe

After finding passion, the next step is to introduce their work. The digital platform has allowed people to share their hobbies with the public. Tampubolon also said to not hesitate to show off their respective works on various platforms, such as Twitter, Instagram, whatsoever.

When the creation is unique and has such quality, then the audience will gather. The second step is to begin. He called this phase as gathering community or building a tribe.

“This one is essential because it’s the economy. I’ve heard a quote saying ‘with only 1000 true fans, one can live in prosper’. From those 1000, if only each would give 100 dollars every year, you can count the result,” he added.

By true fans, he referred to the people who do not hesitate to provide financial support as a form of appreciation for the creator.

However, to maintain a loyal audience, Tampubolon thought social media alone is not enough. He said it’s important for passion economy players to use a platform that can ensure the audience for easy access to the content.

“For example, I have 1 million followers on Vine. Then, Vine goes down, my followers is gone and I gotta start anew. Another example is a campaign on social media, once the algorithm changed, it can reduce the engagement. The algorithm doesn’t view junk content, with no benefits, we are finally trapped in the insensitive algorithm,” he said.

Therefore, he advised maintaining good relations with the true fan community in the additional platform like Sociabuzz or Patreon. On the platform, the creator can directly connect with the true fans and let the works be appreciated.

Another essential detail

Besides the two main tips, there are some things that seem trivial but cannot be ignored by creators if they want to succeed in this passion economy. First, the way to value the works.

Tampubolon advised creators not to label their work too cheap or too expensive. The way to work it out is by fixing an expensive price at first. When the price is too high for the other party, simply adjust it for a cheaper price.

“Therefore, when they get cheaper prices they will be more satisfied.”

Another tip is basic business ethics. He said there are cases when influencers who are merely interactive with service users. The stuff like writing emails properly and correctly, reading briefs carefully, responsive in communicating about business, and other stuff.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

BRI Ventures Sets a New Managed Funds to Non-Fintech Startup in Jakarta and Singapore

BRI Ventures, a corporate venture capital under BRI, is preparing new managed funds as an investment vehicle for non-fintech startups in 2020.

BRI’s Director of Digital, Information Technology and Operations Indra Utoyo ensured the license to invest in non-fintech (Special Purpose Vehicle / SPV) is on progress by the Financial Services Authority (OJK).

“It is under BRI Ventures authority, yet named a venture fund because it is to be used to any [investment] including non-fintech. [For funding] We have our Limited Partner overseas,” Utoyo said to DailySocial.

In a recent interview, BRI’s VP of Investor Relation and Strategy, Markus Liman has mentioned the managed funds is to be finalized by February.

There are seven non-fintech ecosystems to be targeted for investment, including agro-maritime, health, education, tourism and travel, transportation, as well as retail and creative industries.

“We are opportunistic in number, therefore, we are not targeting quantity. Instead, we already have 6-8 deals in a pipeline for a year seeing the existing bandwidth and opportunities, “he said.

Based on the latest information Markus told DailySocial, the team is currently preparing an SPV license not only in Indonesia but also in Singapore.

“There will be an entity in Singapore to acquire a license to the Monetary Authority of Singapore. However, the fund remains as an investment vehicle, “Markus said.

Meanwhile, as noted in BRI’s financial statements in 2019, BRI Ventures is said to aim at the retail and creative industries as its main focus of investment in 2020.

Markus said the retail and creative industries either in Indonesia or overseas have a more mature market. He thought other business verticals require longer effort to run.

“This sector is more mature, both from [business] actors and their supporting ecosystems,” he added.

BRI Ventures, which was founded in 2019, has received fund injection up to Rp1.5 trillion from its parent company. The financial report noted these funds have been distributed in three phases, Rp 200 billion (March), Rp 800 billion (July), and Rp 500 billion (December).

In 2019, BRI Ventures has just invested a total Rp278.11 billion through 17 percent investment in the LinkAja e-money platform.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian