Berrybenka Receives Investment from East Ventures

We heard the news that East Ventures has added Berrybenka into its investment portfolio. Berrybenka is one of few curated online commerce startup which focuses on women fashion and has similar product line with Zalora (from Rocket Internet) and Ratimaya. Until today, Berrrybenka has already had more than 50 brands as partners with 3000 different products. The investment value from East Ventures is not disclosed.

Berrybenka is founded on August 2011 by Claudia Widjaja and Yenti Elizabeth. Interestingly, Berrybenka also has Jason J. Lamuda and Ferry Tanka as recently-joint advisors. Both people are founders of Disdus which has been acquired by Groupon and previously was in investment list of East Ventures too.

The fund obtained, according to Claudia Widjaja, will be utilized to build Berrybenka as the leading fashion commerce site in Indonesia that promotes local brands and designers. Speaking about its portfolio, this is East Ventures’ first startup that focus on fashion commerce and should be interesting to hear as fashion commerce will be one segment to spark this year.

Berrybenka Terima Investasi dari East Ventures

Kami menerima kabar bahwa East Ventures menambah lagi portofolio investasinya dengan memasukkan Berrybenka ke dalam daftarnya. Berrybenka adalah satu dari sedikit curated online commerce yang fokus di bidang fashion dan memiliki bidang yang mirip dengan Zalora (dari Rocket Internet) dan Ratimaya. Hingga saat ini Berrybenka telah memiliki lebih dari 50 brands sebagai partner kerjasama dan 3000 buah produk yang berbeda. Produk yang dijual di Berrybenka adalah produk fashion perempuan. Nilai investasi yang diberikan oleh East Ventures tidak diumumkan.

Berrybenka didirikan bulan Agustus 2011 oleh Claudia Widjaja dan Yenti Elizabeth. Yang menarik, Berrybenka memiliki Jason J. Lamuda dan Ferry Tanka yang baru bergabung selaku advisors. Keduanya adalah pendiri Disdus yang telah diakuisisi oleh Groupon dan sebelumnya juga merupakan startup yang mendapat investasi dari East Ventures.

Dana yang diperoleh, menurut Claudia Widjaja akan digunakan untuk membangun Berrybenka menjadi situs commerce fashion terdepan di Indonesia yang mempromosikan desainer dan brand lokal. Dari portofolionya selama ini, ini adalah kali pertama bagi East Ventures untuk berinvestasi di startup yang fokus untuk segmen commerce, terutama produk fashion.

Crowdsourcing app Sribu closes funding from East Ventures

East Ventures adds one more company to its portfolio and this time it’s SparxUp Winner for Best User Generated Content category, Sribu.com. No details were given as to the size of the investment but they do inform us that East Ventures is not taking any board seat in the company.

Besides winning SparxUp Awards, Sribu also pitched at Jakarta Ventures Night a few weeks ago, and as Ryan Gondokusumo told us, his team will use the fresh capital to boost the company to become Indonesia’s #1 crowdsourcing company. Ryan also believes that East Ventures’ mentorship and guidance will become essential to Sribu’s progress.

Sribu launched July 2011 as a crowdsourcing app that connects designers to clients in need of creative solutions (graphic design, illustration, web design, etc). Until last year (2011) Sribu has more than 7000 designers signed up as their member and just over 60 clients.

Sribu.com Dapatkan Pendanaan Dari East Ventures

East Ventures menambah lagi koleksi startups yang mendapatkan investasi darinya. Kali ini giliran Sribu.com yang merupakan salah satu pemenang Sparxup Awards 2011 untuk kategori Best User Generated Content. Besaran nilai investasi tidak disebutkan dan tidak ada personel dari East Ventures yang akan duduk di jajaran manajemen Sribu.com.

Sribu.com termasuk salah satu startup yang melakukan pitching saat event Jakarta Ventures Night 2012 lalu — yang diadakan oleh East Ventures. Seperti yang disebutkan oleh Ryan Gondokusumo selaku founder Sribu.com, dalam rilis persnya, dana yang diperoleh akan digunakan untuk pengembangan Sribu.com menjadi situs penyedia crowdsourcing terkemuka di Indonesia. Ryan sendiri yakin bahwa East Ventures akan dapat memberikan pengawasan dan panduan yang berharga untuk kemajuan Sribu.com.

Sribu.com diluncurkan di bulan Juni 2011 sebagai situs crowdsourcing yang menghubungkan desainer dan masyarakat atau perusahaan yang membutuhkan jasa desain. Per Q3 2011, Sribu.com telah beranggotakan lebih dari 7000 desainer dalam 16 kategori dan memiliki 60 klien.

Siaran pers lengkap dapat disimak di NewsWire kami.

Urbanesia Closes Investment Deal With Kompas

PT Kompas Cyber Media, the company behind Kompas.com, announced an investment in city directory startup Urbanesia.com.

As quoted from Kompas.com, the alliance between Kompas.com and Urbanesia.com is a long-term investment for integrating business and services. Mr Edi Taslim, Vice Director of PT Kompas Cyber Media said that Kompas.com investment in Urbanesia aims to strengthen and develop Urbanesia’s business model. This investment is also to develop products and Urbanesia services becoming the top choice for personal and business.

Urbanesia itself is a directory service that contains a variety of lifestyle information and place of business based on various categories in the city. They also provide facilities for users to write reviews and earn points.

Continue reading Urbanesia Closes Investment Deal With Kompas

Gree Ventures and Its Investment Plan in South East Asia and East Asia

The other day, Gree announced that it will establish a new subsidiary for investment called Gree Ventures. As reported on Asiajin, Gree Ventures will make GV-I Investment Partnership that will do investment to startups on the internet business realm.

Gree which run their business in social game platform is one of the biggest digital companies in Japan. Dr. Serkan Toto also mentioned that Glee’s financial statement is shown a good result.

Another interesting thing about it is that it will hand investments not only for the Japanese market but also globally with Southeast Asia and East Asia as the main focus. According to its official release, the focus on Southeast Asia and East Asia will be a long term expansion for Gree.

Continue reading Gree Ventures and Its Investment Plan in South East Asia and East Asia

This Is Probably Why US Companies Won’t Open Their Office in Indonesia

So Google, RIM, Facebook and just recently Paypal decided to open their office in Malaysia instead of Indonesia. This causes controversy amongst industrialists and economists that believe those companies should’ve set up their offices in Indonesia instead of Malaysia. Market-base is one of the biggest reason, companies like Facebook and RIM (Blackberry) have a huge user base in Indonesia but instead they’re investing in Malaysia.

We keep trying to figure out why but just recently I was guided to a Wikipedia page of something called the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Could this be the reason?

Continue reading This Is Probably Why US Companies Won’t Open Their Office in Indonesia

Does Application Become RIM’s Investment Target in Indonesia?

One of the articles on Bisnis.com (in Indonesian) about RIM investment in Indonesia is caught my interest. We might know the “war” between Indonesian government and RIM becomes like soap opera with long episodes.

Many things keep our attention on it. One of them is the RIM investment. The article on Bisnis.com stated that RIM will propose the investment concept in November. This statement comes from Hatta Rajasa – Coordinating Minister for Economy. The investment (according to Bisnis.com) is about the software, not the hardware, and it might be about the development of research centre and application institute for global market. It will be done with the cooperation with technology institute in Indonesia (Bandung and Bali).

Continue reading Does Application Become RIM’s Investment Target in Indonesia?

Indonesian Startup Valuations: Dream and Reality

An article written by my friend, William, about reality check on Indonesian startups catches my attention. Basically, the article complaints the hype in Indonesia in which startup ecosystem in Indonesia is not as good as what people talk. William said that some acquisitions and fundings in local technology startup company should not be responded with such hyped excitement.

Sure, there are some startups being run seriously although not interesting enough for investors. Every startup deal in Indonesia, whether it’s funding/investment or acquisition not once mentioned the company’s valuation. Because there is no official value announced, no benchmark can be set for valuing technology companies in Indonesia.

It becomes an obstacle. Moreover, if Indonesian entrepreneurs always take Sillicon Valley as their benchmark in which startup valuation can reach tens millions dollars only in few months after launched. If it is converted to rupiah, the price doesn’t make any sense, especially for 8-months-company having valued over 5 million dollar (40+ billion rupiah). It may be a normal thing in Sillicon Valley, but not in Indonesia.

Continue reading Indonesian Startup Valuations: Dream and Reality

idblogNetwork: About Funding and Its Business Future

East Ventures add its investment portfolio. Now, the chosen startup is the idblogNetwork. It is a familiar name for you, isn’t it? idblogNetwork is the one and only advertising network service for blog in Indonesia in which the members are selectively chosen. Five thousands and forty three blogger has registered and there are still 6000 blogger waiting for confirmation. idblogNetwork is a favorite startup and owned by favorite founder (Kukuh TW) selected by DailySocial readers 2010.

Based on the press release, the funding (the amount is undisclosed) will be used by idblogNetwork to add the quantity and quality of the human resource, infrastructure, new digital technology improvement, products and services innovation, also to support some activities dealing with blogger in Indonesia.

Continue reading idblogNetwork: About Funding and Its Business Future