Indonesia Weekly Review: 3 Archipelago Startup Stories You Don’t Want To Miss This Week

Indonesia is a particularly noteworthy marketplace in Asia. As one of the most populous nations in the world with an average age of 29 years old, Indonesia has a tremendous opportunity for the development of profitable companies. At only 28% Internet penetration, there are already over 93 Mn people online. The potential is huge as can be seen from companies like Kasus, Tokopedia and Go-Jek.

We have previously analysed the driving forces behind the booming ecommerce segment in the country, the emerging ventures, the ecosystem builders and the investors’ favorites as well. Now we would like to provide a comprehensive weekly view of the happenings in the Indonesian startup ecosystem, starting this week.

Important Developments Of The Week

Go-Jek Adds Products To Dominate Indonesian On-Demand Services

Ride-hailing and hyperlocal services platform Go-Jek will add five new services as Indonesia’s fastest-growing startup deepens its range of on-demand products to dominate its home market before embarking on regional expansion. The company is investing in user acquisition and retention across its businesses, Chief Executive Officer Nadiem Makarim said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. Consumers use the app to get groceries and packages delivered as well as buy movie tickets among 15 current services as the company acquires startups in India to add engineering talent and expand its offering to 20.

6 Indonesian Startups That Made It To The Third Batch of Google Launchpad

Google today announced the third batch of Indonesian startups that will join the Launchpad Accelerator programme at Google Headquarters in Silicon Valley, California. The six startups selected to be a part of the programme include Snapcart, Qlue, iGrow, Jurnal, Mapan, and PicMix.

The selected startups will become a part of the six-month mentorship programme for mid to late stage startups will include $50K in equity-free funding, a two-week all-expenses paid boot camp at Google Headquarters, six months of ongoing mentorship and access to Google’s full suite of Launchpad initiatives and connections and product credits including Google Cloud and other products. They will join the programme from January 30, 2017 at Launchpad Space in San Francisco.

These startups will join other startups from Brazil, India, Colombia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and Mexico. The two-week boot camp will start by determining each startup’s critical challenges, and then deploy precise mentorship, actionable solutions, and Google resources that enable their product/app to scale.

FlySpaces Acquires Malaysia’s 8spaces

FlySpaces, has acquired Malaysia-based co-working space marketplace 8spaces. The Founder of 8spaces, Lais de Oliveira, will be joining the executive team and focus on the Malaysian market and regional community building for FlySpaces (as Chief Community Officer). The acquisition was made for an undisclosed amount of cash and equity.

Currently, FlySpaces offers over 800 available spaces across five cities including Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Cebu, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Its clients include top international brands including Nestle, Heineken, Unilever as well as tech giants Google, and Uber.

FlySpaces said it plans to launch in a sixth regional city, Jakarta, by January next year.

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