Vast potential of country’s digital industry remains largely untapped, says venture capital firm
15 Mar 2021 |
Tom King
Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, and also its most populous nation, launched its own sovereign wealth fund last month. The Indonesia Investment Authority (INA) was inaugurated with US$1.1 billion startup capital from the Indonesian government and is expected to receive a further shot of US$5.4 billion from the country’s 2021 budget. The INA will be a strategic partner for domestic and international investors and is initially expected to focus on infrastructure developments.
In Indonesia, old fortunes were built in sectors such as oil and gas, minerals, crude palm oil, rubber products and manufacturing. But according to Jakarta-based Chandra Tjan, co-founder and general partner at Southeast Asia venture capital firm Alpha JWC Ventures, venture capital will be the new wealth creation vehicle in the next five years.
Singapore-based startup Raena has announced it has raised $9 million Series A funding. The round was led by
Alpha Wave Incubation and Alpha JWC Ventures, and also saw participation from AC Ventures and existing investors - Beenos, Strive, and Beenext.
Raena said it will use the funding to grow its team from 15 to 100 members over the next three months. It aims to enable more entrepreneurs and partner with more beauty and health brands across the world to help them enter Indonesia, and eventually South East Asia and the GCC/MENA regions.
The startup identifies, sources, and aggregates products directly from brands/local manufacturers, and then sells them to micro-entrepreneurs online along with a full stack tech platform.
VC
JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post/ANN): Venture capital (VC) firms are bullish about investment growth in Indonesia and Southeast Asia in the medium term after seeing strong growth in start-up financing last year.
Indonesian VC investments grew 6.3 per cent year-on-year (yoy) to Rp 13.5 trillion (US$959.3 million) last year, Financial Services Authority (OJK) data shows, driven by the expansion of technology start-ups after countries imposed Covid-19 mobility restrictions in early 2020.
VC firms expect technology start-ups to continue growing this year and beyond as mobility restrictions in Southeast Asia spur the adoption of digital services for commerce, health, education and grocery shopping, among other areas.
As Shopee succeeds in Southeast Asia, rivals such as Tokopedia are heating up the competition asiaone.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from asiaone.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
As Shopee succeeds in Southeast Asia, rivals such as Tokopedia are heating up the competition Resty Woro Yuniar in Jakarta Shopee last year recorded an average of 90 million monthly website visits in Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy. Photo: Bloomberg
E-commerce firm Shopee s rise in Southeast Asia over the past five years has been rapid, to say the least.
The mobile commerce platform, owned by Singapore-based tech behemoth Sea Group, had the most-downloaded shopping app last year in the region s six biggest markets - Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Singapore - according to app tracker App Annie. It recorded an average of 90 million monthly website visits last year in Indonesia, Southeast Asia s largest economy.