East Ventures announced today that Triawan Munaf, former head of Indonesian creative economy agency (Bekraf), has joined the firm’s leadership board as venture advisor.
Bekraf was founded in 2015 during President Joko Widodo’s first term. The agency served as a ministerial-level agency to assist the president in formulating, establishing, coordinating, and synchronizing policies in the creative economy sector. Munaf completed his term of office in October 2019, with the end of President Widodo’s first cabinet. During his second term, the president merged Bekraf with the ministry of tourism to form the ministry of tourism and creative economy.
During his stint at Bekraf, Munaf launched several initiatives and programs aimed at promoting the country’s digital talents, including Bekraf Developer Day that attracted more than 16,000 young developers across the country, Bekraf Game Prime for Indonesian gaming enthusiasts, and Piala President Esports which was the first national e-sports tournament. He also launched a series of startup training and mentoring programs such as GoStartup, Coding Mum, and an incubation program under Bekraf.
Apart from his role at Bekraf, Triawan Munaf is also an entrepreneur and a former musician. He was recently appointed as the president commissioner of national airline Garuda Indonesia.
East Ventures co-founder and managing partner Willson Cuaca said that Munaf shares similar values with him and his firm in boosting the country’s digital economy. “Indonesia’s creative economy reached the highest point among Southeast Asian countries, and Bekraf’s team laid a strong foundation for the 16 pillars of Indonesia’s creative economy. Together, we want to move even faster in developing Indonesia’s digital economy by leveraging Mr Triawan’s experience and ability in execution,” he said in a statement.