Simona Ventures Focuses on Supporting "Female Founders" in Asia Pacific

Departing from her experience in the world of technology since 2011, Putri Izzati then took the initiative to establish a container that could accommodate entrepreneur women in Indonesia. Named Simona Ventures, Putri and her team's mission is to help female startup founders get comprehensive support in order to build their business, and not lose competitiveness with startup founders who are currently still dominated by men.

Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia that has experienced a significant increase in terms of startup growth, also the market that most companies are looking at venture capital foreign. However, Putri noted that there are still a small number of female startup founders who receive support in the form of investment and other opportunities from venture capital and related parties.

"This has become our focus at Simona Ventures, which is to provide support in the form of: networking and education so that in the end they invest in female startup founders or startups that have women in the C-Level ranks," said Putri.

Putri added, that way later it can appear role model women who work in the world of technology to be able to become role models for the younger generation, especially women. This is currently still very few in number, not only in Indonesia but also globally.

"If we look at countries like the United States, they have started placing women in their C-Level ranks so as to minimize gender gap at the company. In Indonesia itself, it is still not maximally done," said Putri.

Launched Simona Accelerator APAC Women Founders

One of the routine activities that was just announced by Simona Ventures last February for batch The first and later will become a routine activity that is held twice a year is APAC Women Founders. The event, which was initiated by Simona Accelerator, will select the 12 best startups that have female founders or have women in C-Level ranks or in company management.

Later, selected startups from Asia Pacific will receive assistance, support and investment to then expand in Indonesia. In addition, the winners of these activities are also entitled to receive mentoring from Google and are eligible for special programs in South Korea.

"Although our focus is on inviting Asia Pacific startups to enter Indonesia, lucky startups from Indonesia can also get the opportunity mentoring to regional business expansion," said Putri.

The selected startup category of course supports "closing the gender gap" and has a female founder. Thus, Simona Ventures and partners can focus more on achieving the ultimate goal of providing more opportunities for female founders to grow their business.

"We also want to provide support after the activity ends. One of our plans is to develop an alumni program, so that new and old participants can meet each other and establish relationships. networking after the program ends," said Putri.