Wafa Taftazani Answers Doubts

Earlier this year, UpBanx and VCGamers announced their first investment. Digital banking platform for creators UpBanx book funding pre seed $5,2 million with a valuation of $120 million (over IDR1,7 trillion), in just 6 months of operation. While the platform social commerce for game players VVCamers get funding seed $2,5 million and a valuation of $20 million (over IDR 280 billion).

Of the two startups, there is the name Wafa Taftazani in the ranks founder. In addition, Wafa is also a co-founder platform fintechlending People's Capital.

DailySocial.id had the opportunity to conduct interviews with Wafa, explore his career journey, until finally deciding to fully dive into the world of digital entrepreneurship. Not only with 1 startup, but 3 at a time.

Turning point

"Actually, I don't have a background directly related to the world of technology and startups. My grandfather worked at Bank Indonesia (BI), before it was called BI, he had worked for 30 years. My father joined BI too, he has also worked for 30 years and is still active , now at the OJK. You could say, there was an expectation [from my family] that I would go there, but I was told to register several times, I never complied, until the end plunged in the world of technology," said Wafa, starting the conversation.

Wafa started her professional career by working as a global entrepreneur investment banking, precisely at MUFG. He began to enter the world of technology business after studying for a master's degree at the University of Cambridge, England.

He entered Shopee, which at that time was still in its early stages of establishment in Indonesia. From there, Wafa studied the rapidly developing technology business model, including related ones E-commerce, fintech, and various other startup terminology.

Back in 2013, Wafa was already familiar with Stanislaus Tandelilin [co-founder of Rakyat Capital] when they both worked in the banking world. At that time they started discussing, dreaming, of building a technology-based startup, especially related to finance.

As an illustration, in that year the digital startup ecosystem was in its initial phase.

"At that time we could only dream. There wasn't the courage and support that exists today, the infrastructure, the capital, the connections. Until finally in 2017 Stanis went to the office [Wafa still works at Google], then recalled the plan. And in the end he In 2018, Modal Rakyat was formed together with Stanis and 2 co-founder others," said Wafa.

"In 2018, it's just right to make it p2p loans many say it's late. But I believe, the People's Capital will not be like that borrow which come and go as many have been popping up lately. We have a strong business model and partnerships with many institutions. "It has been proven that it still survives and is a partner of many parties," added Wafa.

After Shopee, in August 2017, Wafa started a career at Google, especially in the YouTube unit, which made him interact a lot with Indonesian creators.

At Modal Rakyat, which is part of the FAZZ Financial Group, he works part time. At the end of 2021, Wafa decided to leave Google and establish himself as founder full-time startup.

"During my work at Google for more than 4 years, I learned a lot, got to know several people venture capital, content creator, startup founders. turning pointThis was because of Covid-19, which made me stay at home a lot and then reflect: Where do I want to take People's Capital, where do I want to take my career? "Then finally I got the courage, especially since Upbanx finally entered Y Combinator," explained Wafa.

At VCGamers, Wafa initially became an investor for pre seed they. 1-2 months went by, he felt like he suited the product and team until he finally decided to become co-founder and actively assist in the process fundraising.

Upbanx itself was born from discussions with Hendra Kwik (CEO of Fazz Financial) who suggested Wafa combine his experience in managing brand [from Shopee], creator [from YouTube], and fintech [from the People's Capital] into one.

Upbanx launched with the hope of solving point bread related to financing which is often faced by creators, apart from also wanting to provide a platform for this ecosystem to be able to collaborate with each other, up to optimizing crypto assets and NFT for monetization.

"Initially there were no really serious intentions here. Just to register for YC [Y Combinator] for fun, it turned out that I entered. Once you entered you couldn't do anything else, because you were required to sign a number of legal documents, including one of which was resign from the old office to full time in this new startup. "I'm really grateful that there was so much attention from investors that we finally closed yesterday's funding," added Wafa.

Led two startups

He admitted that at first he was worried about investors' responses when he had to lead two startups at once. Wafa assesses that investors can see the big picture that Upbanx and VCGamers will form a synergy that will produce a comprehensive impact on the creator ecosystem.

"Upbanx and VCGamers closing funding it's just a matter of days different. I was worried when I explained to investors that I was running 2 startups at once. but they managed to see the big picture"It's the same as YC," he explained.

Wafa explained what made his 3 startups soar even though their concentration had to be divided. The main factor is vision and strong team support.

"I usually come with a vision, idea and the courage to take risks. To execute it requires support system, consist of co-founder solid and an amazing team. I have those aspects. I was lucky that they were very committed, because otherwise these ideas would have just been chatter in WhatsApp groups. I give them a vision, they believe in that vision, until they want to resign from previous jobs and so on," said Wafa.

The vision is set in motion passion that he has. He told me about his interest in personal finance, encouraging every innovation to help others achieve financial independence. Indirectly influenced by family backgrounds working in the financial sector, the three startups that Wafa co-founded all have a main common thread, namely fintech.

"That's the most important thing trust and this cannot be built in a short time. This is about how I convince Hendra to support me, how to build relationships with VCs who are now supporting my startup. Outside, because the news comes together, the impression becomes very instant. But no, it takes years. Some of the VCs who came in yesterday were investors from startups that I previously helped, both as advisor or consultant. So I'm not new to them," said Wafa.

About Upbanx's valuation

Upbanx becomes soonicorn in its first funding round. Of course, this raises many people's questions about where these valuation figures come from, considering that the Upbanx product has not yet fully launched. Responding to this, Wafa said that 100% of the valuation came from investors.

"I guarantee that the valuation comes from investors, based on how much they value us. I never said that's the valuation of my startup. And for me as founder, there isn't any mindset to [prioritize] increasing the valuation, because my main focus at the moment is on product development. "That's why now I meet more creators or potential Upbanx users to ask for their input as potential users," said Wafa.

He continued, "For me, valuation will also be influenced by the product, because every startup has a product economic value. From there they will assess and decide whether they want to own the product or not."

Regarding products, by the middle of this year Upbanx is targeted to release two main modules, namely Financing and Marketplace. Slowly they included a number of creators and brand. It is claimed that there are already more than 400 on the waiting list.

Meanwhile, VCGamers will also launch an application this year mobile devices and metaverse components to make it easier for users to integrate and utilize tokens.

Learn from failure

Long before this, Wafa's track record in the world of entrepreneurship began many years ago. Outside of digital startups, he has owned several businesses, two of which are interior design services and agency. Everyone failed. Some were abandoned because they couldn't focus on their work. From this less than sweet journey, Wafa learned many things. One thing that is significant is the importance of building trust.

"First and most important, actually trust to ourselves. Because if we don't believe in ourselves, we ultimately won't have the courage to make the necessary decisions. Reduce self-doubt, limiting myself with the excuse 'I don't have one Privilege certain'. "People will only believe in us, after we ourselves believe in us," he stressed.

Currently Wafa is also active angel investors in several startups. Even though he doesn't want to mention the identity of the startup, his portfolio includes startups in the field EdTech and F&B.

When investing, the hypothesis always refers to product market fit and founder market fit. In the product aspect, Wafa always wants to ensure that what people make is what people want, sometimes it doesn't have to be all about solving problems. Then, in aspect founder, he always wants to confirm whether they are the right person to work on the product in this market.

Roadmap product integration

Product-wise, Upbanx has also been integrated with Fazz Financial ecosystem (the parent company that oversees Modal Rakyat), including Cashfazz. For creators who need funding, they will be connected to Rakyat Capital, and brand requiring virtual card or e-money will be supported by other Fazz ecosystems.

Upbanx and VCGamers have also done it pilot project for integration. For example, regarding the VCG token which was launched some time ago. On the Upbanx platform they collaborate with RANS Entertainment through a collaboration module. use case it is hoped that this will be expanded, thus making Upbanx not just a launchpad/marketing partners, but it could be liquidity partners on Web3 projects that creators will develop.

Here, Wafa also answers the question of RANS Ventures which supports the initial funding of Upbanx and VCGamers. Wafa currently has role there (position still secret). He is the person who encouraged RANS, which was founded by celebrities Raffi Ahmad and Nagita Slavina, to enter the startup ecosystem.

According to him, this will be the right momentum when RANS will soon IPO. Diversifying your business to digital will increase people's interest in viewing The roadmap company going forward.

"Indonesia is very lucky because its consumer market is large, in fact it doesn't need global expansion to become one decacorn as long as startups can build products that suit consumer needs. But I myself am challenged to do so go global. "For this reason, from the start, Upbanx and VCGamers' business DNA has been there, starting from the naming, to selecting investors who have global reach," concluded Wafa.