Indonesian IT Minister Rudiantara inaugurated the NextICorn Foundation to establish long-term cooperation between the government and key ecosystem stakeholders in Indonesia’s digital sector.
The foundation will provide opportunities for startups to meet the right venture capital firms and offers support in technology, marketing, and business model development through a series of activities. The minister targets to have at least 20 new unicorns in Indonesia by 2025.
Thomas Lembong, the chairman of Indonesia’s Investment Coordinating Board commended the foundation and promised to support it as he believes it will have a big impact on local startups. NextICorn is designed to be a vehicle to help startups grow long-term and minimize the risk of being overly dependent on market trends. “The Investment board will actively participate, not only as a coach but also help in terms of sponsorship and other forms of support,” Lembong said in an official statement.
The NextICorn initiative was founded in 2017 to promote promising Indonesian startups to investors across the globe. Minister Rudiantara started the program by inviting founders of five up-and-coming startups at that time, Go-Jek, Tokopedia, Traveloka, MatahariMall, and Kaskus, to Silicon Valley and to introducing them to industry leaders and investors. With the launch of the foundation, the initiative now has a formal legal framework and is adding more programs.
Last year, NextICorn hosted two international summits in Bali. Founders of four Indonesian unicorn companies; Nadiem Makarim of Go-Jek, William Tanuwijaya of Tokopedia, Ferry Unardi of Traveloka, and Achmad Zaky of Bukalapak, opened the summit to show their support for NextIcorn and its mission to develop Indonesia’s burgeoning digital sector.
Editor: Nadine Freischlad