Grab, BRI Ventures Launch Accelerator Program for Startups

TheIndonesia.id - Technology companies Grab and BRI Ventures launched Grab Ventures Velocity (GVV) Batch 5 X Sembrani Wira Accelerator Program to support Indonesian startups to be more resilient and sustainable during the pandemic. Registration for the GVV Batch 5 x Sembrani Wira program will be open from June 21 to July 22, 2022.

"Through the GVV Batch 5 X Sembrani Wira program, Grab not only provides mentorship sessions and workshops as well as access to funding but also an opportunity for founders to test their ideas or products in the Grab ecosystem," said Country Managing Director of Grab Indonesia Neneng Goenadi in his statement quoted by Antara, Friday, July 1, 2022.

This year, Grab continues its collaboration from 2021 with BRI Ventures to present a joint accelerator program, collaborating with Alpha JWC Ventures as one of the leading venture capital (VC) in Southeast Asia. The theme raised was "Preparing Indonesia's Startups for Post-Pandemic Market".

Selected startups will participate in an intensive program for 12-16 weeks with a series of workshops, mentorship, networking with venture capital, and testing ideas or products in the Grab ecosystem (pilot), as well as opportunities to continue collaboration with Grab and access to funding.

"The GVV Batch 5 X Sembrani Wira program is the right place for local startups to prepare their businesses to build a sustainable business," said BRI Ventures CEO Nicko Widjaja.

This fifth batch of GVV program targets startups in two sectors, namely SME Enablement (MSME Empowerment) and Direct to Consumers (D2C). MSME development is one of Grab's main focuses so services that can support MSME empowerment such as Point of Sale (POS), Customer Relationship Management, e-Commerce enablement, and Software as a Service (SaaS) are still a priority this year.

As a new sector targeted by GVV this year, startups with a Direct to Consumer (D2C) business model are also predicted to be one of the sectors that have great potential for growth and to provide convenience for consumers.

GVV was first launched in 2018 and 26 startups from various countries in Southeast Asia have graduated from this accelerator program, of which 21 are Indonesian startups such as Sejasa, Tanihub, Sayurbox, Qoala, Majoo, and Octopus. On the other hand, Sembrani Wira, an accelerator program created by BRI Ventures, has also graduated several startups since starting in 2021.