Upturn Talks about Accelerator Program Debut to Investment Thesis

Startup Upturn officially started its first accelerator program in May 2022. Claiming positive achievements on the program's debut, Upturn Co-founder and Partner Riswanto plans to expand his involvement in the startup industry through a new investment vehicle.

Apart from Riswanto, Upturn Ayunda Afifah and Bharat Ongso were co-founded. Since April 2022, it has changed its name from the previous "Tunnelerate". In addition, Upturn is now operating with the new entity PT Upturn Akselerasi Nusantara and has ceased operations on the entity that oversees Tunnelerate. It should be noted, Upturn is startup for accelerator programs, not a venture capitalist (VC).

In an interview with DailySocial.id, Riswanto briefly told about accelerator programs, hypotheses, and startup investment plans. He also revealed that he is currently recruiting to fill the position of Managing Partner who can represent Upturn long-term.

Accelerator program

Instead of focusing on reasons rebranding, Riswanto further highlighted Upturn's efforts to help accelerate startup businesses in Indonesia. With its current position, the accelerator program is the right step to facilitate founder to mentors, investors, and Upturn's network.

As an illustration, the value of the digital economy in Indonesia is recorded at $70 billion in 2021 which is also the largest in Southeast Asia. The figure is expected to cross $146 billion by 2025.

Upturn has launched the "Upturn Scale Program Batch I" on May 17, 2022. A total of 14 participants were selected from 200 registrants to participate in the activity for ten weeks. Meanwhile, around 15 VC partners were involved in Demo Day activities. Through Demo Day activities, his party seeks to encourage the readiness of participants to formulate pitch deck so that it can attract investment for business development.

These 14 participants include Jaramba, Flash Campus, Broiler X, Wiseree, Find Cars, Bengkel Mania, Bintang Kecil, Goritax, Kibble, Psychologymu, Rakamin Academy, Sgara, Stellar X, and Learn More.

"We get support from Amazon Web Services (AWS), Xendit, GoWork, and several traditional companies looking to digitally transform. [Through this program] we help startups to validate [problems]," he said.

Investment thesis

Currently, Upturn is eyeing sector agnostic. However, considering the Upturn Partners had a number of core expertise certain sectors, there are several sectors that are considered to still have potential in Indonesia, such as agriculture, aquaculture, and fintech; in addition to the large sector, fintech dynamic development.

In addition, Upturn Partners have combined career experience, having worked in traditional companies and startups. This is an added value to focus on business fundamentals and economic units. "We don't want to invest for fear of being left behind [the trend]. In fact, participants in Batch I on average have already profitable and bootstrapped. For example, the Learning Again platform," said Riswanto.

For your information, Riswanto is a angel investors of startups agritech Eratani. He and Bharat Ongso have strong career experience in the IT and fintech sectors. Meanwhile, Afi has strong career experience in the people and culture.

"According to our thesis, when the world is in crisis, people will return to basics. People need food, infrastructure such as logistics, and capital through fintech Thus, Upturn offered value pada product development [based on career experience] and business networks we have," he added.

They believe that there are many founder potential and its business is doing well in Indonesia, but it doesn't have know-how sufficient to seek funding to VCs. Instead of investing because of trends, he wanted to emphasize his commitment to finding startups that have products that users actually use and build on sustainable business.

"Not every shiny founder [with educational background from a well-known university] can create a successful business. On the contrary, not every non-shiny founder can't build a good startup."

Investment vehicle

Riswanto emphasized that his party wanted to take on a role in the digital industry through two different platforms. So, after the debut of this first program, Upturn plans to establish a new entity that serves as an investment vehicle. Meanwhile, the second batch of accelerator program will be held next year.

He said the plan was in line with feedback positives received from its accelerator program. "We got a lot exposure so there is a call for collaboration. This is a positive signal because it means that many are starting vertical-focused," said Riswanto.

"We think startups that are already running accelerator programs will definitely want to find funding. In Batch I, there are startups that we are trying to connect with investors, and some have closing," he said.

In the next few months, his party will explore a model that is considered suitable with Upturn's vision and mission. He is considering investing through partnership models with VCs or digital companies, such as Grab Velocity Ventures (Grab) or Hero (BRI Ventures).