Indonesia Weekly Review: 3 Archipelago Startup Stories You Don’t Want To Miss This Week [4 September-9 September]

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.

Indonesian Coworking Space ReWork Raises $3 Mn In Pre-Series A Funding

Indonesian co-working space provider ReWork has raised $3 Mn in a pre-series A funding round. Te investment was led by ATM Capital and Convergence Ventures.

China’s co-work unicorn UrWork, Social Capital, Fortune Union Investments, ACE Capital as well as new and existing investors also participated in the round.

The newly raised funds will enable ReWork to expand their work spaces across Jakarta, Surabaya, and Bali, the firm said. It aims to expand to 35 locations in 2018.

Kioson Becomes First Startup To Get Listed On Indonesia Stock Exchange

Jakarta-based digital application provider for small stores Kioson has announced to raise over $3 Mn from its IPO next month. Kioson will be the first local startup to get listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange.

Kioson has put forward 150 Mn shares for sale at a per share price of $0.02 (IDR 266). This is almost equivalent to 23.1% of company’s total shares.

The Indonesian startup will be using76% of the raised funds to acquire other businesses. For now, Kioson has set its eyes on Narindo, a payments company providing modern retail solutions. The remaining funds will be used in fulfilling operational costs.

Despite $70 Bn Worth Cash Resources, Indonesian Firms Lack M&A Activity

Despite sitting on a huge cash pile of $68.6 Bn as on 2016, Indonesia-listed companies remain the least active acquirers among their Southeast Asian counterparts, as per a recent report by management consulting firm Bain & Co.

The report cites organic scale-up as the major factor behind this as Indonesian corporates have been able to deliver material earnings growth on organic growth alone.

The Bain report also found that Indonesian firms focus more on domestic transactions than regional opportunities. Between 2012 and 2016, Indonesia saw $45 Bn in value of domestic M&A activities, about 46% of which were done by foreign strategics – mainly Japanese and Chinese strategic investors.

Stay tuned for next week’s Indonesia Weekly Review.