Indonesia Weekly Review: 4 Archipelago Startup Stories You Don’t Want To Miss This Week [14 August-19 August]

From mergers and acquisitions to funding and contests, here is the next edition of the Indonesia weekly review – your weekly dose of the latest happenings from the Indonesia startup ecosystem.

This week Mumbai-based impact investor Aavishkaar came into the limelight in the Indonesia startup ecosystem for its “advanced discussions” with an Indonesian food startup over a possible investment worth around $2 Mn.  Aavishkaar has invested in three Indonesian companies since it entered the country in 2015, including fish marketplace firm Bali Seafood, an unnamed tapioca producer, and handcraft ecommerce platform Qlapa.

Let’s have a look at other important updates from Indonesia startup ecosystem.

Indonesia Startup Tokopedia Sweeps $1.1 Bn Series F Led By Alibaba

Ecommerce firm Tokopedia has raised $1.1 Bn in a round led by Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba.

The round also saw participation from undisclosed shareholders of the company. Other financial details of the transaction are undisclosed but with this round of funding Alibaba has picked up a minority stake in Tokopedia.

Till date, Tokopedia has raised about $1.3 Bn funding.

Sale Stock Raises $27 Mn Series B Funding

Indonesia-based fashion ecommerce startup Sale Stock has raised $27 Mn in Series B in a round led by VC firm Gobi Partners. Other investors Alpha JWC Ventures, Convergence Ventures, KIP, MNC and SMDV also participated in the funding round.

The newly raised funds will be used for strengthening the company’s market position and to step towards profitability.

Sale Stock offers fashion ecommerce for women through the web, mobile applications, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, LINE, Direct Message on Instagram and BBM chat app. The company has a ‘no discount policy’ but compared to its Indonesian counterparts, the prices of the SKUs are less expensive.

Indonesia Govt. Issues Much-Awaited Ecommerce Roadmap

Indonesia President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has finally inscribed the long-awaited ecommerce roadmap earlier this month. The main objective of the roadmap is to boost ecommerce sector growth, with the long-term goal of stimulating country’s overall digital economy.

It is believed that the push for the digital economy with the ongoing reforms in the ecommerce sector will turn on a new growth engine for Indonesia. The roadmap will not only regulate technology but will also solve for issues such as logistics, cyber securities, taxation, human resources development and consumer protection.

Apart from this, the government will also work towards implementation of the electronic-based National Trading System 2016-2019.

Stay tuned for next week’s edition of Indonesia startup news.