October, November & December
4th Quarter
Indonesia’s tech, startup and VC funding news from across October, November and December of 2019, focusing on early stage startups.
For technology-specific news for the most recent month, visit the Other News section, covering blockchain, artificial intelligence, fintech and cryptocurrency news across the 17 jurisdictions that we cover.
October 2019 • November 2019 • December 2019
October 2019
- Indonesia: Qlue smart city solution provider focusing on AI and IoT expands overseas with Malaysia office, and sights set on Dubai, Thailand, and Japan
- Indonesia: Digital Discourses Conference set for October 25th, looking at fake news, black campaigns, online radicalization, hate speech and more
- Indonesia: Total loans disbursed by fintech P2P lenders as of August stood at $3.87BN, up more than three times from $828.65M in 2018
- Indonesia: Bukalapak ecommerce marketplace partners Google My Business to register 95K MSMEs online, making warungs visible on Maps and Search
- Indonesia: TouchTen games developer gains funding to aid growth of women’s mobile gaming
- Indonesia: Sampingan on-demand workforce startup gains $1.5M pre-series A funding with network of over 150K agent-partners across the country
- Indonesia: Gojek Xcelerate unveils first cohort of 5 startups, each receiving mentoring from McKinsey & Co, Google Launchpad Developer, UBS Bank and Digitaraya
- Indonesia: An intro to StickEarn, adtech connecting brands with drivers for measurable OOH advertising which recently raised $5.5M, in part from Grab
- Indonesia: Fuse app-based insurtech gains funding with aggregation of 200+ products drawan from partnership with 30 local and international insurance firms
- Indonesia: RoomMe proptech startup gains China’s Ant Financial backing with Jakarta-focused co-living service
- Myanmar’s UMG Idealab seeking potential co-investment opportunities with Indonesian VCs as it looks to invest beyond its pre-seed stage expertise
- Indonesia: Wild Digital Conference set for Jakarta, November 26th – networking, over 40 speakers, pitch competition and more
- Indonesia: Yummy Group startup gains $7.75M funding with ‘cloud kitchen’ approach and catering solutions
- Indonesia: A data-backed overview of the country’s startup ecosystem
- Indonesia: Crewdible secures $1.5M pre-A to turn empty facilities, houses or offices, into warehouses for online sellers
- Japan: State-backed Cool Japan Fund to invest circa $50M in Go-Jek ride-hail giant, aiming to push Japanese content to Grab’s new video streaming offering
- UN Sustainable Development-focused 2019 Accelerate2030 finalists include InvestEd from the Philippines, and Indonesia’s Sampangan
November 2019
- Estimated at $40BN in 2019, Indonesia’s Internet economy has more than quadrupled in size since 2015…on track to cross the $130BN mark by 2025
- Indonesia: Grab and GoJek fight it out for domestic super-app status, with an immediate impact on everyday groceries
- Indonesia: Grivy sets sights on bridge round and Series A funding in Q1 2020 to connect offline stores with mobile-first users
- Indonesia: Government to meet with social media companies around plans to impose fines up to $36K for ‘negative’ content provided via their platforms
- Indonesia: Pintek fintech platform gains pre-A funding with flexible credit to consumers and institutions across the education sector
- Indonesia: Kudo digital kiosks enabler integrates with Grab, becoming GrabKios
- Indonesia: Travelio raises $18M to help tenants find and rent apartments
- Indonesia: Next Indonesian Unicorns, NextICorn, platform launched by government, Venture Capital Association for Indonesian Startups and EY consulting
- Indonesia: A look at West Java’s digital services initiatives focused on helping the province’s 6000 villages
- Indonesia: EVOS Esports adds $1.4M to early-2019 $4.4M funding, and expands into ‘gaming influencer management’
- Indonesia: 10 startups led by women selected for Gojek Xcelerate Batch Two
- Indonesia: Tokocrypto cryptocurrency exchange platform becomes government-approved platform for cryptocurrency assets trading
- Indonesia: Gojek ride-hailing unicorn reportedly separating financial arm, Go-Finance, into an independent entity called Digital Katalis, or Dkatalis
- Indonesia: Bukalapak e-commerce giant partners Cermati financial product marketplace to launch online credit card application service
- Singapore’s Eatsy integrates payments with Grab platform for expansion to Indonesia, allowing users to order and pay for food before reaching restaurants
- Startup World Cup Indonesia regional final set to take place as part of Wild Digital Conference in Jakarta, November 26th
- Indonesia: An overview of the offline programs run by e-commerce platforms, bridging formal and informal economies of warungs and small kiosks
- Indonesia: A brief intro to Qraved online marketing platform, a recent presenter at the ASEAN-Korea Startup Summit
- Indonesia: Amartha fintech gains funding to make P2P lending available to more women and families in villages across Indonesia
- Indonesia: ALAMI fintech startup raises seed round led by Singapore’s Golden Gate Ventures, in first funding in the region to be structured in sharia-compliant terms
- Indonesian ride-hail giant Gojek to expand existing business in Singapore through partnership with local taxi company Trans-Cab
December 2019
- Indonesia: Halofina financial management startup raises pre-A funding with AI-driven financial planning
- Indonesia: Tokopedia e-commerce giant launches new Sharia-compliant travel service, Tokopedia Umroh
- Indonesian President: “I have ordered ministers to replace echelon III and IV officials with AI [because] our bureaucracy will be faster with AI…”
- Indonesia and Singapore to improve cooperation in e-commerce, fintech, data services, and development of tech parks and innovation hubs
- Indonesia: UNDP and 500 Startups unveil 9 Indonesian startups at ImpactAim Demo Day in Singapore
- Indonesia: Evermos raises $8.25M Series A with Sharia-compliant social commerce platform focused on Muslim products
- Huawei cloud services unit to partner regional arm of San Francisco’s Skymind to offer joint expertise on smart city innovation with projects in Indonesia, Malaysia
- Indonesia’s MDI Ventures and South Korea’s KB Investment partner for US$30M joint fund to focus on startup investments in SE Asia
- Indonesia: Gojek ride-hailing giant reportedly nearing acquisition of Moka mobile point-of-sale startup, aiming to become country’s leading digital payments leader
- Centauri Fund growth-stage VC fund launches with backing from Telkom Indonesia and South Korea’s KB Financial Group, aiming for $150M corpus
- Indonesia’s Travelio, fast-changing property-technology startup, gains backing from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation
- ICYMI: Digital banking in Indonesia – Building loyalty and generating growth, from McKinsey in February (pdf)
- Indonesia: Grab partners Hyundai to launch electric vehicle hailing service pilot project in Jakarta
- Indonesia’s Gojek to shut down most of the lifestyle services offered in profit pressures move, keeping GoClean housekeeping service and GoMassage service
- Indonesia: An overview of CekFakta, hailed as a ground-breaking initiative in addressing fake news and disinformation during the country’s 2019 elections
- Indonesian coffee chain, Kopi Kenangan, aiming to open over 1K kiosks in 2 years, following investments by vehicles owned by Jay-Z, Serena Williams and NBA’s LeVert
- Indonesia: Ruangguru online learning platform raises $150M with over 15M students and 300K teachers across Indonesia, setting sights on Vietnam entry
- Indonesia: Legalku legal tech startup raises seed funding from Myanmar’s UMG Idealab with on-demand legal consultation service and SaaS platform
- An intro to the 7 Malaysia startups selected for batch 5 of the EXPAND Indonesia program, recently placed for a week’s immersion in Jakarta’s FintechSPACE
- Style Theory online platform for renting designer apparel in Indonesia and Singapore raises $15M with plans for RFID tagging, process streamlining and more
- China’s ByteDance now testing new social music app, Resso, in India and Indonesia, hoping to generate another global sensation like TikTok
Startup News: Indonesia
Keep up-to-the-minute with Indonesia’s startup news:
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