Ministry of Research and Technology Prepares Grant Funds Through Indonesian Innovation Startups

The Ministry of Research and Technology/National Research and Innovation Agency (Kemenristek/BRIN) has re-released its annual program which is now named Indonesian Innovation Startups (SII). This program is the result rebranding The previous program was named Technology-Based Startup Company (PPBT) which took place in 2015-2019.

Minister of Research and Technology/Head of BRIN Bambang Brodjonegoro explained, rebranding This is taken with the consideration that it is more easily known and understood by the wider community. The spirit to be conveyed through SII remains the same. The government wants to produce more entrepreneurs who are still prospective startups, or those who have become startups can continue scale up, to become the next unicorn candidate.

"We hope that this program will not only increase startups but also encourage existing startups to advance to class. scale up continue to the unicorn. We want the startup not to stop being just a startup [company scale], but trying to become a bigger company and have healthy profits," explained Bambang, yesterday (6/3).

Indonesian President Joko Widodo on one occasion mentioned that Indonesia has the most active startup ecosystem in Southeast Asia. Placing this country at number 5 in the world after America, India, Britain, and Canada. This opportunity must be used so that Indonesia is not only a market, but must become a leader in its own country.

The registration period for the Kemristek/BRIN annual program has opened this month.

PPBT program journey

In a five-year period, this program has provided guidance and development for technology startups from universities, research and development institutions, and the general public. The total is 1.307 startup with a total budget given of IDR 371,71 billion.

This startup does not only cover those engaged in digital technology, but also covers eight fields, namely food, drug health, energy, transportation, raw materials, advanced materials, defense and security, and information and communication technology.

The majority of these fostered startups are still in the pre-start-up stage, while startups that have scale up only reached 10%. Described further, there are 26 startups that have entered the stage mature with a turnover of more than IDR 1 trillion per year.

Then there are 44 startups with a turnover of between Rp. 500 million to Rp. 1 billion per year and 244 startups with a turnover of between Rp. 100 million to Rp. 500 million per year. There are also startups that fail as many as 25 startups or 1,9% of the total startups.

This statistic is claimed to prove that the Kemenristek/BRIN early stage funding program was successful in developing the technology entrepreneurship ecosystem in the country.

Bambang said the government would bring together startups that had scale up this with the financiers to increase the business capacity of their companies. The speed dating activity will be held after the coaching program ends.

"Suitable for startups" scale up are VCs. Nature the funding is suitable for startup characters who are indeed entry-level entrepreneurs."

Indonesian Innovation Startups

There are several shifts in focus for startups targeted for this year, namely startups that focus on food, transportation, engineering engineering, maritime, health, energy, defense and security, multi-disciplinary, and cross-sectoral. The government sets a number of requirements for each startup category, starting from pre-startup, startup, and startup scale up.

For pre-startup, for example, the opportunity to get funding of up to Rp250 million. The requirements are that they must be proposed by a university incubator institution, have a prototype, focus on product validation and market validation.

While for the startup stage, the opportunity for funds that can be obtained is a maximum of IDR 500 million. They can be independently proposed by startups from anywhere, as long as the product is commercially ready, already incubated, and focused on market access and business development.

Lastly, for the stage scale up a maximum of IDR 1 billion can be received. The conditions are that they must be proposed as alumni of the Kemenristek/BRIN incubation funding program, already have business growth, partner with investors, and focus on market expansion and increasing production capacity.

Bambang ensured that the assistance program from the government was effective and did not collide with similar programs made by other ministries. For this reason, he emphasized that startups that focus on pre-startup and startups will be directed to register with the Ministry of Research and Technology / BRIN.

As for startups scale up will be directed according to the focus of the startup business itself with the ministry's program. For example, those that focus on digitizing tourism are directed to the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, digitizing SMEs to the Ministry of Cooperatives, or digitizing technology to Kemenkominfo.

"We want to make sure that there are no startups that can get help from many ministries, while there are startups on the other side that can't at all. So we coordinate for space sharing. But what we want to encourage the most is to encourage more technology-based entrepreneurs, which The toughest challenges are in the early stages."