Indonesia Weekly Review: 4 Archipelago Startup Stories You Don’t Want To Miss This Week [28 August-2 September]

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

Indonesian HR Tech Startup Synergo Raises Seed Funding From East Ventures

Jakarta-based HR Tech startup Synergo has raised an undisclosed amount of Seed funding from East Ventures. Synergo plans to utilise the raised funding to enhance its HR Tech solutions as per local business needs.

The aim is to help businesses increase employee performance via tracking, evaluating, comparing and analysing both employee performance and the company’s performance trends. Other recent investments of East Ventures in Indonesia include Sociolla, Ekrut, Julo and more.

Indonesian AI-Based Chatbot Platform Kata.Ai Raises $3.5 Mn Series A Funding

Indonesian AI based chatbot platform Kata.ai has secured $3.5 Mn in Series A funding round led by the Taiwanese Trans-Pacific Technology Fund (TPTF).

The investors that participated in the round are Korea-based Access Ventures, MDI Ventures, VPG Asia and Convergence Ventures, the VC arm of Indonesia’s state-run telecommunications provider Telkom. The Series A funding round also saw participation from Red Sails Investment and angel investor Eddy Chan.

As per reports, TPTF principal Barry Lee will join Kata.ai as a board member. With the newly-raised capital, the company is looking to expand operations to emerging markets in Taiwan and other Southeast Asian countries.

In addition to creating an international presence, the startup is working towards integrating multiple languages, including Mandarin Chinese. Competing against ChatzBro and virtual concierge service Bang Joni, Kata.ai is aggressively leveraging AI technologies to capture the emerging chatbot market in Southeast Asia.

Ruangguru Launches Free Classroom Management Service for Indonesian Teachers

Ruangguru, an Indonesian technology company, launched its newest service, RuangKelas (literally “classroom”). The free service is intended to facilitate teachers learning the skills for managing teaching and learning activities in the classroom.

Teachers can invite their own students to join RuangKelas, through which they can then share assignments and tests, allowing them to monitor the students’ progress and results. The assignments and tests can consist of self-made content, or teachers can take advantage of problem banks provided by Ruangguru.

In the spirit of collaboration, through RuangKelas, teachers can work together to create educational content that can be used by other teachers throughout Indonesia. For example, a teacher in Jakarta could use problems made by a teacher in Makassar. The hope is that the increased collaboration will improve and equalize the quality of educational content in Indonesia.

Solidiance Report: Indonesian Banks Must Go Digital to Lure Millennials

Marketing consultancy firm Solidiance has revealed in a recent report that Indonesian banks must digitise their services to better cater to technology-savvy millennials.

The report titled “Digital Evolution in Indonesia’s Banking Industry” is the result of research, reports and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders in the archipelago between February and July this year.

The report notes that only 36% of the country’s population is currently connected to financial institutions, leaving about 150 Mn citizens who are still unbanked. Also, Indonesia’s digital penetration rate, which stood at 34% last year, is still low compared with other emerging markets, such as the Philippines (46%), China (49%), Thailand (56%) and Brazil (58%). However, it is slightly above India, at 28%.

Solidiance said in its report that banks are now trying to win over millennial customers by finding the best business models and keeping up with innovations in products and services. The report also said banks need to collaborate with financial technology companies to create a larger market base and expand digital products and services.

Stay tuned for next week’s Indonesia Weekly Review.