An announcement by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia featured the initiative of the Indonesian
government to facilitate a collaborative meeting between digital start-ups and
investors through the 1st Next Indonesia Unicorn (NextICorn)
International Summit 2018.
President Joko
Widodo has established a long-term mission to making Indonesia as the Digital Energy of Asia as early as 2016. The
Indonesian government aims to become the largest digital economy in Asia by
2020.
Through the
e-Commerce Roadmap and the Digital Start-up Program, government ministries and
agencies, stakeholders, starts-ups, and digital technology companies with
valuations of more than US$ 1 billion (unicorns), collaborated to guarantee
that the industry's digital economy valuation could reach US$ 130 billion by 2020.
As of current, there are four unicorns in
Indonesia: Go-Jek, Traveloka, Tokopedia and Bukalapak. The
1st NextICorn International
Summit 2018 is an initiative of the Indonesian government and the Venture
Capital Association for Start-up Indonesia (AMVESINDO). This forum was an
opportunity to bring together start-ups and domestic and foreign investors,
possibly collaborating to create a new unicorn.
It was the first
time that the four Indonesian unicorns were on the same stage. Their role
is to be the gatekeepers of the voyage to Indonesia as a Digital Paradise, a
platform that allows global and national investors to develop the digital
economy in Indonesia. This platform also allows start-up companies to
grow and develop with regulatory ease and certainty of funding.
With the theme of “Voyage
to Indonesia as Digital Paradise”, the
1st NextIcorn International Summit 2018 brought 98 investors from
67 venture capital companies. 1,023 confirmed meeting schedules, involving more
than 200 participants, happened on 10 May 2018. The meetings are expected to
bring in more investments and funding opportunities for digital start-ups.
Based from
experience, it is relatively easy for start-up owners to get funding in the
beginning, which is commonly called Series Pre-A or Series A. Then, it would be
difficult for them to get funding when the range is more than US$ 1 million.
On the other hand, investors from the venture
capital firms experience difficulty in finding decent start-ups to fund.
This forum was initiated by the government as a
response to the request of the start-up industry to create an opportunity that
will facilitate start-up meetings. The government knows the importance of
creating avenues for this kind of forums because Indonesia’s economic growth is
dominated by the influx of domestic and foreign investments in technology.
Mr Thomas Lembong, the Head of the Investment
Coordinating Board, represented President Joko Widodo in the opening of the
event. He said that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in in Indonesia was
dominated by two sectors in the last 4 years, the smelting and the digital
economy. He furthered, “The digital economy sector is the saviour of FDI
Indonesia. I really hope this continues.”
He mentioned the role that the government plays in
ensuring digital sector investment continues is extremely important. He
cited two main principles that should be supported by the government: light
touch regulation and safe harbour policy.
“Light touch is related to regulation, wherein
the government should not interfere and try to regulate everything, allowing innovation
to grow in this country,“ explained Mr Lembong.
He added, “In the safe harbour policy, the
government should be able to create a secure environment for the start-up
industry. As policymakers, they should understand that innovation comes from
experimentation and failures. They should be able to protect the start-ups when
they fail.”
According to the Ministry of Communications and Informatics Minister Rudiantara, the Department has applied light
touch regulation, wherein the digital business simply needs to register online
and they need not ask for permission again. He affirmed the government's efforts to be a
facilitator of digital economic development and said, "The
government, especially the Ministry of Communications and Informatics,
recognise our role as a facilitator and even an accelerator for the growth of
the national digital economy and make Indonesia Digital Paradise, possibly creating
the next unicorns.”