Insignia Explains New Investment Paradigm for Advanced Stage Startups

Ula, a B2B Commerce startup for MSMEs, was founded in 2020 by Alan Wong, Derry Sakti, Riky Tenggara, and Nipun Mehra. In its debut, they raised $10,5 million in seed funding from Sequoia, Lightspeed, and a number of other VCs and individuals. In 6 months, they got 2x the series A funding than before. Then, within 9 months, they secured $87 million in series B funding, including from VC Jeff Bezos. The total equity funds raised reached $140 million.

This story illustrates how easy it is for venture capitalists to pour investment money into a startup. And this didn't just happen to Ula, the outpouring of funding also happened to other startups such as Lummo, BukuWarung, Astro, and others. In a relatively short time, several funding rounds were successfully closed, involving investors from local, regional and global levels. It even gives them status centaur less than 2 years.

Unfortunately, getting large funding does not guarantee that a startup will be successful 'take-off' to the sustainable business stage. Ula and Lummo for example, now they choose closing the business model previously filled in nationwide raising funds and carrying out complete operational restructuring (including disbanding the team). Both Ula and Lummo are filled by ranks founder who is quite experienced in the technology business ecosystem.

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