65 Indonesian Startups Raise US$22 Million in Funding

TheIndonesia.id - At least 65 startup companies that have graduated from the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology's Startup Studio Indonesia (SSI) incubation program have grown rapidly and have successfully raised a total of IDR 332.1 billion or US$ 22 million in funding.

"We are very proud to see the various achievements of SSI alumni. Not only in terms of funding, what is more important is that this early-stage startup can develop, providing an increasingly important impact on the economy and quality of life in the country," said the Director General of Informatics Applications at the Ministry of Communications and Informatics Samuel Abrijani Pangerapan in a press statement received by ANTARA, Tuesday, June 21, 2022.

The Ministry of Communication and Information, said Samuel, is committed to continuing to create and empower Indonesian startups that are agile, solutive, and able to meet market needs through SSI and other programs. Of the four batches of SSI that have been implemented, 30 to 40 percent of each batch have received initial funding after participating in the incubation program.

An alumnus who has grown rapidly after joining SSI is Verihubs, a Batch 1 alumnus. With the vision to become the most inclusive verification platform in Indonesia, Verihubs develops Know Your Customer (KYC) solutions based on artificial intelligence (AI) technology for the digital customer onboarding process.

Thanks to its innovation, Verihubs has been named the company with the best facial recognition technology in Indonesia for two consecutive years, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Today, Verihubs consistently processes more than 4.5 million verifications per month and has increased revenue by 25x within a year.

From Batch 2, SSI LingoTalk alumni managed to get two stages of initial funding from several well-known investors, such as Iterative Capital, Eduspaze by Spaze Ventures, and Kistech Pte Ltd after participating in the SSI program. This foreign language education startup also launched a new product line for the children's segment through schools, namely LingoJunior.

LingoJunior assists schools in foreign language learning by providing innovative topic-based curricula and materials, certified by the Education Alliance Finland, and establishing a Learning Management System that helps teachers and parents monitor their children's language learning progress in an efficient and personalized manner.

"One of the most important lessons we learned from the SSI program was the strategy to achieve product-market fit (PMF), focus and maximize company efforts & resources in this area. Currently, LingoJunior has collaborated with more than 150 schools for the past 3 months," Andre Benito, CEO of LingoTalk, said.

Meanwhile, the alumnus of SSI Batch 3, Soulparking, has proven to be brave enough to step out of his comfort zone with a new business model in the form of a franchise system and Hardware-as-a-Service (HaaS). This startup that digitized the parking system also recorded revenue growth of more than 20 percent every month, as well as increased its operational point by 50 percent by expanding to Bali, after previously focusing on Java.

"We are very grateful to have the opportunity to participate in the SSI program because we can get to know new founders, mentors, and friends, and learn from each other. SSI is the best program to gain learning and experience about raising startups from the early stages, " said Andru Surya Wijaya, CBO and Co-Founder of SoulParking.

Recently, the Ministry of Communication and Information has officially opened registration for the 5th SSI Batch program. This intensive incubation program aims to assist and foster early-stage digital startups in the country to achieve product-market fit optimally.