Nexticorn Holds “Red Carpet”, Supports More Indonesian Startups to Become Unicorns

An international conference entitled "Next Indonesia Unicorn (NextIcorn): Digital Paradises Weekend" was held Kemenkominfo on 13-14 October 2018 in Bali. The main objective of this event is to open opportunities for potential startups in Indonesia to find investors in advanced funding (above Series B), so that they have the opportunity to become "unicornNext. Besides the conference, the event is also filled with opportunities meeting and pitching startups and panel discussions on the future of the digital industry.

In his opening remarks, David Rimbo, Managing Partner of Ernst & Young Indonesia, said that through the Nexticorn platform there are three main aspects provided, namely to promote startups, connect startups with investors, and become a directory of potential startups. Startups that get access to the "red carpet" are closely curated by the committee, as well as invited investors. In particular, Nexticorn focuses on bringing in potential investors and owns track record produce unciron.

"At Nexticorn Summit II we present 125 venture capital from 13 countries and 88 startups. During these two days, we noted that there were about 709 meetings between startups and investors that will be held," said David in his opening presentation.

Some of the startups that have successfully entered the curation include Salesstock (e-commerce), Said.ai (artificial intelligence), my modal (fintech), Coinworks (fintech), Harukaedu (edtech), Halodoc (healthtech), Mocha (SaaS) and others. While some venture capital Global and local companies that have been successfully brought in include Accel Partners, SoftBank Ventures Korea, Temasek, Yahoo! Japan Capital, LINE Ventures, East Ventures, Eight Roads, Quona, Reinventure, Jubilee Capital Management, and others.

One more unicorn before 2019

Kemenkominfo target, in 2019 Indonesia will have 5 startups unicorn. After GO-JEK, Tokopedia, Traveloka, and Bukalapak, it means that there is only one more left. The government is quite optimistic that it can achieve this target, it could even exceed it. This was conveyed by the Minister of Communication and Informatics Rudiantara when giving a speech keynote in Nexticorn on day one. In front of investors, the minister who is familiarly called Chief RA also gave encouragement why they need to invest in Indonesian startups.

The first reason given is because the business environment is very conducive. This is indicated by the fairly stable economic growth in the last 10 years. In addition, the government through its regulations also provides flexibility in access, as evidenced by the number of global investors who have already reached the business market in Indonesia. The government's role in incubating and accelerating startups is also shown as the government's seriousness in building the digital industry.

"When it comes to prospects, in 2030 it is said that Indonesia will be included in the top 5 largest economies in the world. This is also driven by the demographic bonus, in 2030 there will be 180 million people of productive age. So it is not only an opportunity for market share, but also a business center. We are very confident in Mr. President's vision to go digital country economy"explained Rudiantara.

Few regulations, a lot of facilitation

Rudiantara also said that to achieve this goal, to become Asia's digital economy, Indonesia had to improve a lot. As a ministry that has a lot of control in digital affairs, it claims to have carried out bureaucratic reform. This includes continuing to encourage the growth of infrastructure that can support the digital economy, one of which is the Palapa Ring, which has begun to connect various important points around the world.

"Kominfo is not a ministry that old school, to grow the business not only act as a regulator, but a facilitator and accelerator. So, less regulators, more facilitators. Because for me, the best regulation is less regulation," exclaimed Rudiantara.

However, the government is also aware that, in addition to the great opportunity, there is a fundamental issue that must be resolved immediately to realize this ambition, namely the availability of competent talent. This is in line with what is often conveyed by many founder startups. For this reason, the government through its units will continue to encourage the improvement of the quality of human resources, especially in the fields of technology and development.

"We have a program to send potential talents to study in Bangalore, Beijing and Silicon Valley. Why there? Because when we learn to develop digital products we have to choose the right place. I see it as the right environment to solve the talent issue," added Rudiantara.

In addition, the government also encourages the technology industry in Indonesia to intervene to solve this problem. Several technology companies, such as Cisco and Microsoft, have committed to jointly build a syllabus with industry standardization to become the "Digital Talent Scholarship" curriculum that is being planned by the government.

Apart from industry, the program works directly with universities in providing educational and teaching facilities. To reach more places, Kemenkominfo will also work with educational startups such as Ruangguru in spreading access to technology education.