Closer to the Sembrani Wira Accelerator Program from BRI Ventures

BRI Ventures (BVI) introduced the "Sembrani Wira" accelerator program, in collaboration with Fazz Financial and supported by Prasetia Dwidharma. The goal is to help founder accelerate the growth of its startup, so that it is ready to enter a wider market both regionally and globally.

In the first series, from hundreds of participants who registered, 9 startups were selected including GajiGesa, Biteship, MYCL, CookLabs, Grade, Restock.id, Minapoli, kill, and Brick.io. Then they will follow a series of activities for 8 weeks guided by mentors and investors from Indonesia, Singapore, Australia, to the United States.

Philosophically, Wira (वीर) is taken from Sanskrit which means "knight". It is also the root of the word "entrepreneur" or "entrepreneur", according to a person's DNA founder startup

"Over the past decade, Indonesia's startup ecosystem has grown bigger, better, and more sustainable despite the crisis in 2020. The technology sector has been a clear winner despite many industrial downturns around the world. Now founder already very much different, from the level of execution to the level of mindset. We are very optimistic that this group will become one of the best I have worked with in my career," said BRI Ventures CEO Nicko Widjaja.

In a joint interview DailySocialMarkus Liman Rahardja, VP Investment & Business Development at BRI Ventures, explained that there were several reasons that prompted the birth of Sembrani Wira. First, BVI felt that this was the right time to "go earlier". As is known, currently the CVC has several managed funds, for: growth-stage up with play fund owned and for early stage with Nusantara Sembrani which was recently announced.

Through this program, BVI also has a mission to foster and develop local ecosystems for the next generation of startups. "The time is now, the pandemic has accelerated a lot of new industries and sectors, so we see many new startups emerging and they attract [..] The hero is also defined as 'war', so we want to find new digital knights in Indonesia," said Markus.

Sembrani Wira does not target only certain sectors (agnostic), but there are several criteria that become variables in the selection process. Most notably, they are looking for startups that are more prepared in terms of business models and products -- some of the participants have even received funding from angel investors as well as venture capitalists.

The focus of this program is to re-validate the existing business model, while sharpening the product. Then, there is an opportunity to be assisted in opening up market share through networks owned by BRI and BVI. With the hope that when they finish the program they are better prepared to enter pipeline Nusantara Sembrani.

Markus also explained that it is different from the accelerator program whose learning model is in the form of classroom models, Sembrani Wira presents more exclusive sessions to bring together founder with mentors. The interactions that are carried out are more focused on business development specifically according to the needs of each startup, rather than adding business insight in general.

Furthermore, Nicko said, "One of the important things on our agenda is to help the founder not only get product-market fit, but also go beyond. So we will discuss with the founder to see what their goals are and help them to recall what they need to do to achieve those goals."

“Startup ecosystems in every country have a mindset called Pay It Forwards. This is evident when Google, Facebook, Amazon, Alibaba and others believe in the ecosystems in which they grow and reinvest to drive innovation that comes from new founders."

BRI Ventures is also working with DailySocial as a media partner and accelerator platform provider. In addition, participants will also get legal service assistance through Legal Contracts, AWS credits, and other attractive benefits that can help them grow their business to a better stage.