BALI, Indonesia, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In addressing to the vast development of the digital industry in Indonesia, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) is hosting a conference to connect and promote local startups to global investors. Titled the NextICorn International Convention -- Digital Paradise Weekend, the event will take place in Bali on October 13-14th 2018 as part of President Joko Widodo's "1,000 Digital Startup Movement" program.
The inaugural NextICorn (Next Indonesian Unicorns) was previously held in May 2018 and successfully promoted Indonesia's most investible startups in their fundraising stage to foreign market investors. It resulted in 1,035 meetings between local startups and 89 top-tier venture capitals from the United States of America, Japan, Singapore, India, Australia, Korea and Indonesia. The founders of four Indonesian unicorns: Nadim Makarim (Go-Jek), Achmad Zaky (BukaLapak), William Tanuwijaya (Tokopedia) and Ferry Unardi (Traveloka), were also present to share their success stories.
NextICorn gathers selected potential startups, curated by NextICorn Coordinating Board, to discuss and pitch for investment opportunities with over 100 venture capital representatives after undergoing selection process with several requirements, such as 25% Indonesian ownership and have received over USD 100,000 funding from non-founders.
The curated local startups will have a rare opportunity to pitch their ideas in the 1-on-1 VC-startup meetings, enabling both parties to find each other's strategic strength and weaknesses while also having the opportunity to gain funding. The Board is optimist to host over 2,000 meetings within the event, or doubling the number of meetings from the first one.
"NextICorn is an initiative to provide additional platform in promoting Indonesian tech companies and assist growing startups, knowing that 90 percent of startups failed after only receiving their seed funding. This event aims to provide more funding resources to avoid the valley of death of the startups," NextICorn Brand Ambassador Daniel Tumiwa said.
At the panels, NextICorn representatives, who are among Indonesia's most investable startups, will share insights into the opportunities that exist in each of their respective verticals. On the other hand, the panel of prominent international investors will share the stage and their perspectives on the opportunity landscape in Indonesia, while domestic investors will share insights into investing in Indonesian startups.
With the aim of making Indonesia as a "digital paradise", NextICorn will see the investment perspective in the Southeast Asian region, especially Indonesia, through the eyes of global investors. In other words, issues including concerns over the regulatory sector, investment climate, competitiveness, regional GDP and growth rate, as well as the critical decisions to address "Series B" funding gap for the startups will be covered.
Ultimately, ICT Minister Rudiantara is to deliver the current strategic and regulatory framework as being considered by the Indonesian government to induce further growth in Indonesia's digital economy sector. A panel of excellencies will also share the forward-looking regulatory framework for foreign direct investment in the digital economy.
