Prasetia Dwidharma's Support for the Global Startup Ecosystem

As a venture capital company that was established in 2016, Prasetya Dwidharma invest in Indonesian startups, Southeast Asian regional startups, and even startups based in the United States. There are 100 startups that have been funded by them.

To DailySocial, CEO Prasetia Dwidharma Arya Setiadharma revealed his investment strategy and hopes to startup founders who have: passion and hunger large enough to grow their business.

Focus on technology

Founded with his twin brother Ardi Setiadharma, Prasetia Dwidharma positions itself as CVC. All investments come from balance sheets company founded by Arya, Ardi, and his father, Budi Setiadharma.

One of the industries that Prasetia Dwidharma focuses on is the gaming industry.

"Gaming is an industry where new technology is widely used, such as AR and VR. I see it will continue to grow coupled with the user experience getting better now. In the future I see more and more technology being included in the ecosystem," said Arya.

Having previously invested in touch, Prasetia Dwidharma this year provided fresh funds to platform developers mobile gaming Singapore Goama. Goama allows other applications to incorporate gaming segments into its platform, usually for purposes user retention.

"I see anglevery scalable. Not only the Indonesian market, this concept can also be applied to the global market. We see angle "What's interesting is targeting the B2B to B2B2C segments," said Arya.

apart Gaming, Prasetia Dwidharma is also interested in investing in the robotics sector. In 2018 they funded Singapore startup Ratio. According to them, the founders of Ratio have very mature experience. In addition, the business model and technology presented are relevant for the global market.

"I got to know the founder while studying at Purdue University. Seeing his experience working in China helped grow Yum China, in the future the robot technology they present can overcome resource problems, such as baristas in cafe or coffee shop. Especially in countries that have labor costs quite big," said Arya.

Arya added, the most difficult business to startscale up is the food and beverage industry. It is hoped that Ratio's robotics solution can minimize this problem.

Diversify the startup category

During the pandemic, Prasetia Dwidharma was active in providing funding. In the last two years there have been 14 startups that have been funded. Startups that have been funded in the past year include Neurobit, Traktor, Decentro, Danamart, MyRobin, Brig and LunaPOS. Meanwhile this year it was recorded Jago Coffee, Populix, Bamms, Trade, Goama and Fresh Factory as its portfolio.

"For Fresh Factory, we are interested in the business model offered. They useconvert existing shophouses become coldstorage. Logistics angle "That is what then became our concern, plus the founder is very experienced," said Arya.

Prasetia Dwidharma's investment portfolio is quite diverse. Around 60% of investment is given to companies operating in Indonesia. They also allocate 20% of funds for Southeast Asian startups (outside Indonesia) and another 20% for US startups.

Even though the market in Indonesia has huge potential, Arya sees that most Indonesian startups are still focused on the local market. This is different from startups from Singapore or the United States, which mostly target the global market.

Prasetia Dwidharma's team usually obtains investments abroad based on recommendations from incubator programs, such as Y Combinator and Antler. They also receive many recommendations from various relevant organizations. Arya considers this method to be quite effective due to limited resources for curating and background check.

"We strive to diversify investment theses and strategies. In this way we become increasinglyexhibits to different technologies. Not only consumer oriented, SaaS and others," said Arya.

Arya also invited more corporations to invest in startups. Not only focusing on startup founders who are still young, but also on startups that have passion and youthful enthusiasm, even though the founder is older (40 years and over).

"As investors we can position ourselves as helicopter view. "Based on the experience we have as a corporation, we can see which industries will grow and of course have good potential," said Arya.