July, August & September 2020
The Startup News Asia third quarter 2020 round-up of Indonesia’s startup news from July, August and September.
Each news headline listed below deals with a tech or startup news item from Q3 2020 connected with an aspect of Indonesia’s startup ecosystem; an announcement by an Indonesian startup around a new service, product or investment, or an article covering something likely to affect Indonesia’s startup ecosystem in some way, such as a government startup program, for instance.
The focus is obviously on Indonesia’s startups, but outside-world tech and startup news headlines are included where useful as points-of-reference, food for thought, or to provide wider industry or tech knowledge.
September 2020 | August 2020 | July 2020
Indonesia’s startup news: September 2020
- Indonesia: PasarPolis insurance tech firm banks $45M, having issued over 650M policies to first-time insurance customers in 2019
- Indonesia: Government to digitalize state-owned enterprises, aiming to boost economic efficiency; and boost startups by offering venture capital via SOEs and banks
- Australia’s Amatil X, Coca-Cola’s corporate venturing platform, sets sights on growth in Indonesia with startups and innovation
- Indonesia: A round-up of recent tech, startup and funding news from the country, gathered from Startup News Asia’s daily updates
- Indonesia: An overview of the country’s financial apps and e-wallet services
- Indonesia: 12 more companies including Twitter and Zoom added to list of internet businesses that must pay 10% value-added tax on sales
- Indonesia: A look at how Crowde empowers smallholder farmers with access to capital and technology – one of 11 finalists in the Future Food Asia 2020 Awards
- Indonesia: A brief look at the National Cyber and Encryption Agency, focused on tackling increasing cyber-threats – over 88M attacks in first four months of 2020 alone
- Singapore’s Float Foods launches NEWFOOD Startup 2020 for food-focused innovators and startups in Indonesia
- Indonesia: Yummy Corporation ‘cloud kitchen’ management firm raises $12M with over 70 facilities providing deliveries-focused food production services
- Mobile Only Accelerator – MOX- unveils 7 graduates of 9th cohort of startups focusing on mobile-first markets in South and Southeast Asia
- Thailand: Indonesia’s Gojek ride-hailing giant adds to Grab rivalry with launch of multi-service Thailand app
- Vietnam: GoJek, Indonesian ride-hail giant, acquires majority stake in WePay payments startup, gaining access to 24 banks, 1K merchants and 4 international card issuers
- South Korea: Maeil Business Newspaper selects 3 professionals from Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar as winners for 5th edition of ASEAN Entrepreneur Award
Indonesia’s startup news: August 2020
- Indonesia: An intro look at Burgreens, vegan food startup which has grown from 2 people to a staff of 150 in 3 years
- Indonesia: Wahyoo gains $5M Series A to help small eateries digitize their activities, from ordering supplies to managing finances
- Indonesia: More on Wahyoo’s $5M Series A funding, the second investment into Indonesia by Coca-Cola Amatil’s $10M venture capital arm
- Indonesia: An intro to Tridi Oasis, women-led recycling startup
- Indonesia: Ayoconnect raises $5M, connecting bill providers such as utilities, telcos with online and offline partners – minimarkets, postal service, financial institutions
- Indonesia: Aruna raises $5.5M with digital platform connecting thousands of fishermen in 31 coastal areas directly to buyers, cutting out middleman fees
- Indonesia: BukuKas raises $9M pre-Series A with digital ledger platform for MSMEs, allowing them to automate processes and monitor sales, profit and credit
- Indonesia: MDI Ventures, corporate VC arm of Telkom Group, launches new $500M fund, in part looking at taking traditional, offline SOEs into digital activity
- Indonesia: An intro to InfraDigital, helping schools digitize tuition and enrolment, and partnering everyday outlets to help parents make digital payments for tuition
- Indonesia: A recent look at the growing presence of tech firms like GoPay and OVO in the digital payments space, already handling over 55% of all digital payments in the country
- Indonesia: An interview with the country’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology on the ‘war room’ approach taken to combat fake news
- Government agencies in Malaysia and Indonesia sign cooperation agreement to establish ‘collaborative framework’ for fintech development, aiming for joint projects
- Indonesia: KitaBeli raises seed investment with social commerce approach, enabling group buying for FMCG customers
- Indonesia: Gojek launches Melaju Bersama Gojek initiative to aid SMEs into digital transformation of their businesses, where over 90% of Indonesians work
- Another look at the 11 startups selected from the End Plastic Waste Innovation Platform program, from Australia, India, Indonesia, Myanmar and UAE
- Singapore’s Igloo insurtech partners Union Bank of the Philippines and Indonesia’s Akulaku for expansion of micro-insurance products
- Comparing the startup ecosystems of Indonesia and Vietnam, an online event from Tech In Asia, set for September 3rd
Indonesia’s startup news: July 2020
- Indonesia’s InfraDigital gains funding from Taiwan’s AppWorks to digitize student data, automate back-office processes and facilitate online tuition payments for schools
- An intro to Indonesia’s Akulaku, delivering online credit, wealth management and digital banking to 6M users and counting
- Indonesia: Gojek to unify local Vietnam and Thai brands under one platform, aiming to strengthen operations and branding beyond home market in response to Grab
- Alibaba Cloud to launch 3rd Indonesia-based data center, aiming to capitalize on corporate moves towards cloud-hosted IT systems
- Indonesia: An intro to BukuWarung, bookkeeping app focused on Indonesia[s 60M small store ‘micromerchants’
- Indonesia: PAYFAZZ fintech reportedly secures $53M, focusing on bank agents who conduct transactions on behalf of unbanked and underbanked customers
- Indonesia: Social Bella beauty-tech startup raises $58M with suite of e-commerce focused internet properties, estimating service to 30M users by year-end
- Indonesia: Svara digital media firm aiming to raise $8M Series A with cloud-based broadcasting-focused systems, and sights on expansion to Myanmar
- Indonesia: TiinTiin raises $2.5M with online used-autos marketplace
- Indonesia: MSMB takes inaugural Hermes Award win at Germany’s Hannover Messe Digital Days with agtech solution helping farmers monitor and manage land
- Indonesia: A brief intro to the 11 fintech and banking tech startups selected for the 3rd batch of SYNRGY Accelerator program from Bank Central Asia
- Indonesia: AwanTunai peer-to-peer lending startup raises $20M debt facility with point-of-sale financing and mobile consumer credit for micro-merchants
- Indonesia: An intro to 5 of the country’s noteworthy blockchain projects, working in security, auditability, transparency, traceability and beyond
- Indonesia: AwanTunai gains $20M debt facility, aiming to address the obstacles faced by 60 million micro-merchants in securing loans
