Getting to know "Living Lab Ventures", Sinar Mas Land's Startup Investment Vehicle

The Sinarmas Group through Sinarmas Land Limited (together with its subsidiary and affiliate, “Sinar Mas Land”) announced a new investment vehicle called Living Lab Ventures. This initiative was formed to support technological innovation through the acceleration and funding of potential startups in Indonesia.

Regarding the funding plan for startups, previously Sinar Mas Land has also announced Urban Gateway Fund in May 2022, involving a number of venture capitalists as strategic partners, namely East Ventures, Redbadge Pacific, and Prasetia Dwidharma

Meanwhile, the launch of Living Lab Ventures shows their consistency in developing a digital ecosystem that is the company's current focus, especially to add digital aspects to development. Township overall. The company is getting closer to its ambition to build a comprehensive digital ecosystem in the independent township of Bumi Serpong Damai (BSD), Tangerang, Banten.

Living Lab Ventures is led by Mulyawan Gani as Managing Partner and Bayu Seto as Partner. It is known that both of them have work experience as executives in several startups unicorn and business transformation into the digital realm.

Mulyawan Gani stated, “Potential for exponential growth smart city in Indonesia is getting more attention. To create digital lifestyle conducive environment, we need to empower the community with innovative and adaptive technology in line with the dynamic needs of the community itself. Living Lab Ventures wants to support local startups to unlock their potential and become g by integrating their innovations and technological solutions into people's daily lives.”

Investment hypothesis

In making investments, Living Lab Ventures uses an open sector agnostic approach to reach a wider investment network. For the size of the funding, his team stated that there is no specific figure for each startup, depending on traineeship-his. Regarding the stages, the company admitted to investing starting at all stages. "Generally, we participate in funding from the start of the startup early stage until it penetrates later stages," added Mulyawan.

Living Lab Ventures focuses on three main technology aspects, namely Smart Technologies, Digital Life, and Mobility. Smart Technologies is an aspect that focuses on innovative technologies that support smart urban living. This technology is closely related to aspects of Digital Life which focuses on related technologies E-commerce and social networking impact on social life. Then Mobility focuses on smart technology in the movement of people and goods within the city.

One of the unique values ​​of Living Lab Ventures is having Living Lab X as a laboratory to incubate and develop local startups, enabling them to integrate technology into people's lives. This laboratory allows collaboration with other related companies, as well as providing pilot testing for initial implementation trials.

In addition, the Living Lab will also support collaboration and provide mentoring for leaders of startup companies in every process of company development. Living Lab Venture itself has made several investments from various sectors. Their initial investment was in SWAPEnergy. This shows that one of the company's focuses is on the ESG sector.

Bayu Seto added, “Our idea in establishing Living Lab Ventures is not only to facilitate startups in terms of funding, but also through Living Lab X to prepare an incubation process that goes hand in hand with their innovations and technological solutions. In the future, the successful application of this digital technology will help the development of a smart society not only in BSD City, but also in Indonesia.”

Regarding the funding target this year, Mulyani revealed that the company's focus is not on how many startups, but what kind of solutions can be provided. "Currently we are looking for a platform that has an impact on the problem statements that city dwellers have, so we are trying to find a solution that works city ​​centric driven. In addition, we also see scalability of the startup, business model, and founder qualified," he added