Plug and Play Indonesia Holds "Demo Day" 9 First Batch Startups

Silicon Valley-based startup accelerator Indonesian Plug and Play held a Demo Day event for 9 startups that passed the accelerator program in Jakarta. Also attending the Demo Day kegiatan batch First, Plug and Play Indonesia President Director Wesley Harjono, APAC Plug and Play Managing Partner Jupe Tan, and Plug and Play Indonesia Accelerator Director Nayoko Wicaksono.

"The 11 startups that have passed the selection have gone through a screening process to only 9 startups that have passed the Indonesian Plug and Play acceleration program. In the future, we will develop and provide support to these 9 startups to get deal from investors," said Jupe.

The nine startups that made it to the Demo Day stage were startups that had successfully passed the initial screening of 400 startup applications. The services offered are also quite diverse, ranging from those targeting transportation services, financial technology (fintech), agriculture, edutech to HR. All startups have the opportunity to collaborate with corporations and an initial funding injection of US $ 50 thousand.

"Of batch For the first time, we open registration for startups in general, however, from batch For the first time, we can see what kind of startup we will focus on batch both Plug and Play Indonesia," said Wesley.

For 14 weeks, startups have received support from Plug and Play Indonesia in the form of mentorship, to meet with regulators to launch their business models.

Nine startups that passed the Plug and Play acceleration program and were entitled to promote their business in Demo Day activities were Education Fund, KYCK, Autospector, Busticket, card, SayurBox, safe, Astronaut, Wonderworx.

The lack of education and skills of the Founders

On the occasion, there was also one of Plug and Play Indonesia's mentors, Sukan Makmuri, who is the CTO of PT Kudo Teknologi Indonesia (KUDO). While serving as a mentor, Sukan still saw the lack of skills and abilities of Indonesian startup founders. According to Sports, this is one of the main factors why there are no new startups that can exist and sustainable.

"It is not only the business model that is our concern at Plug and Play Indonesia, but also the abilities and skills of the Founders which are currently still very minimal."

Sukan added that a good founder should ideally be able to make compromises and not assume that the startup business idea they have is absolute.

"It is important for Founders to have strong resilience and be smart to determine the right time when a startup with its services and products can be launched. Timing is everything in the startup world, said Sports.

apart timing, according to Wesley, products that can provide the best solutions for the community are also a determining factor for startup success. For that reason, Plug and Play Indonesia conducts a curation process to determine which startup can provide the best solution.

"If the business model is clear and can solve the existing problems, we at Plug and Play will help foster startups meet with regulators and bridge the services they provide," said Wesley.