Indonesia Weekly Review: 3 Startup Stories You Don’t Want To Miss This Week [9 January – 14 January]

Two weeks into the new year and Indonesia’s startup scene seems to be on a roller coaster ride. Here are the biggest developments that took place in the archipelago this week.

East Ventures Closes $27.5 Mn Funding Round

Singapore-based VC firm East Ventures has closed its fifth round of funding and has plans to use the capital to increase its investments in the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem, reported The Jakarta Post.

It has raised $27.5 Mn, to be deployed in early-stage tech startups in Southeast Asia.

As per a report by Deal Street Asia, East Ventures has 80 active portfolio companies across Southeast Asia. The VC firm has invested in more than 20 new startups per year and witnessed a follow-on investment rate of 75%.

Social Networking App Nearcircles Raises $1 Mn To Expand Footprint In Indonesia

Signapore-based geo-targeted app Nearcircles which recently entered Indonesia has raised $1 Mn in funding from IDN Financials. The startup will deploy the funds to increase its base in Indonesia, a report by The Tech Portal said.

Founded in 2014, the app allows its users to form private social networks with other users within their geographical proximity. As per an official statement, the app is functional in in 3,200 neighborhoods in Singapore, Mumbai, and Jakarta, and has connected over 100,000 people who are involved in about thousands of local discussions.

GoPay Beats Cash, Accounts For More Than Half Of GoJek’s Transactions

Indonesia’s first unicorn and the fastest growing tech startup, GoJek is on a journey towards promoting digital payments over cash. The company launched GoPay, its digital payments platform in April 2016 and it currently accounts for more than half of the transactions on GoJek’s platform, reported Bloomberg.

GoPay is Go-Jek’s digital wallet and connects all of its services, ride-hailing, and hyperlocal and ensures that you can make cashless transactions. The company claims that GoPay has extremely high penetration in Indonesia and tie-ups.

Users can add money to their GoPay wallets by going to most ATMs in most cities in Indonesia. Additionally, they can also add money to their wallet by simply giving cash to their Go-Jek drivers. For Go-Jek, every driver works as a deposit machine for GoPay and a walking machine you can withdraw cash from as well. So essentially, every driver works as a mobile ATM.

Further, according to the same report, the company plans to increase the number of engineers in India by 200 and to continue making acquisitions here.