Startup Studio Indonesia (SSI), a government-run incubation program for early-stage startups, officially opened registration for the Batch 5 program in May. The intensive program, developed under the aegis of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (Kominfo), aims to help and advance early-stage Indonesian digital startups to adapt to the product market.
Over four months, participants are mentored by renowned startup founders, C-levels, and practitioners from a variety of local and multinational companies, including Moses Lo (co-founder and CEO of xendit), Gibran Huzaifah (founder and CEO of line fishing), Dimas Harry Priawan (co-founder and CEO of Dekoruma), and many more from Gojek, ticket.com, Halodocand HappyFresh.
In total, SSI has helped 65 startup alumni achieve promising results after graduating from the program, with the incubator bringing in a total of $22.7 million (IDR 332.1 billion) in funding channeled to alumni students. Each batch has consistently seen 30-40% of participants receive seed/pre-seed capital after completion.
“We are very proud to see the accomplishments of SSI alumni. Without being limited to funding, what is more important is that these start-ups can grow and have an increasingly significant impact on Indonesia’s economy and quality of life. At Kominfo, we are committed to continuing to empower Indonesian startups to become agile, resolute and capable of achieving their PMF, through SSI and other targeted programs,” said Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan, Chief Application Officer computers, Kominfo.
Progress and Achievements of Previous SSI Participants
Verihubs
Aiming to become Indonesia’s most comprehensive verification platform, Verihubs has developed “Know Your Customer” (KYC) solutions based on artificial intelligence technology to digitally onboard customers. Following its participation in the SSI program, the company launched new products, including “Know Your Business” to streamline the credit check process, and “Know Your Employee”, a solution to support the screening of potential new employees.
The company’s innovative solutions have resulted in Verihubs being awarded the best facial recognition technology in Indonesia for two consecutive years by NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology). Today, they process more than 4.5 million verifications per month and have increased their revenue 25 times in one year. The company raised $2.8 million in seed funding in 2021, led by Insignia Venture Partners.
“Through the SSI program, coaches have openly shared lessons they learned and mistakes they made while building their businesses. , which has helped me tremendously with focus when building my own business,” said Williem, CTO and co-founder of Verihubs.
LingoTalk
After participating in the program, the LingoTalk has progressed through two rounds of funding from several well-known investors, including Kistech Pte Ltd., Iterative Capital and Eduspaze from Spaze Ventures. The language teaching platform also launched LingoJunior, a new product for the children’s segment (program certified by Education Alliance Finland) as well as a learning management system and the LingoParents feature to help parents track learning progress of their children.
“One of the most important lessons we learned from SSI was the strategy of achieving product-market fit (PMF) and maximizing company resources in this area. Currently, our PMF is on the produces LingoJunior, which targets K-12 students with five percent growth in acquisition rate per week.Throughout 2022, we also aim to increase collaboration with 59% of the total number of schools elementary schools in Indonesia to develop foreign language skills from an early age, to produce talents equipped to compete on the global stage,” said Andre Benito, CEO of LingoTalk.
These and many other examples have greatly benefited from the SSI program, gaining tangible growth, direction, experience and results, with some receiving seed funding, including Justika and Praktis, Finku, Gajiku, Keyta and Fishlog. Additionally, Verihubs, Deall Sejuta Cita, as well as Finku and Sribuu have also been selected to represent Indonesia in the US tech startup accelerator, Y Combinator.
Startup Studio Indonesia aims to strengthen and complement the digital startup empowerment program launched by Kominfo, including the 1000 Digital Startup Movement and Hub.id. Through these programs, the ministry aims to produce 150 digital startups by 2024 with the ability to scale in terms of number of users, revenue, jobs, and VC funding.
Startup Studio Indonesia aims to incubate 150 startups by 2024
