Indo Tekno Podcast

Originally formed to address the sad fact that air pollution takes 5+ years off the life of the average Jakarta resident, sister companies nafas & aria have achieved renown in Indonesia's tech community with their pioneering work in air monitoring and purification. Cofounder Piotr Jakubowski and team are now aggressively adding features such as a virus risk index for both enterprise and residential customers, as they grapple with the relentless spread of COVID 19 throughout Indonesia. 

"At the end of the day, somebody needs to aggregate neighbourhood demand" in order to become the dominant solutions provider to Indonesia's massive small retailer segment, states Ula Founder and CEO Nipun Mehra. Ula is founded on the provocative assumption that "the traditional store actually has a massive advantage over modern retail formats." The successful model will play to these existing strengths, not replace them, in bringing the mom & pop into the modern retail era.

Indonesia has become a crucible for tremendous amounts of experimentation in ecommerce business models. Steven Wongsoredjo, Cofounder and CEO of Super, has combined both the group-buying elements of global category leaders such as China's Pinduoduo, along with several uniquely Indonesian aspects such as agent-based sales. Shirking the "Jabodetabek" focus of most other ecommerce platforms, Super has instead found strong growth in Tiers 2 & 3 and rural markets in the eastern parts of Indonesia. Super estimates this unique social commerce opportunity to be USD200b in size. 

Neneng Goenadi, Country Managing Director for Grab, is one of the Indonesian tech world's most accomplished and charismatic female business leaders. Neneng discusses the company's aggressive expansion into new, lower tier markets and multiple other initiatives to help spur economic recovery from the pandemic. She attributes Grab's leadership in part to having built its own in-house tech in areas such as anti-fraud and mapping, which she believes has nurtured the allegiance of all players to its multi-sided marketplace. Neneng also shares her deep optimism over the widening range of leadership opportunities that the tech world offers aspiring women in Indonesia.

China e-commerce GMV totalled a massive RMB11.3 trn in 2020, or 12% of the country’s GDP. Indonesia e-commerce GMV of USD40b meanwhile was less than 2% of GDP, suggesting massive long-term upside on its way to 12% and beyond. Today’s guests, Brian Marshal and Andreas Thamrin, are cofounders of SIRCLO. SIRCLO’s sole purpose is to help small, mid-sized, and enterprise brands to sell online. SIRCLO seeks to help Indonesia's merchants unlock massive efficiencies and growth by mapping them to: a) new ecommerce platforms, b) integrated omni-channel strategies, c) more sophisticated "back-end" technologies and d) unprecedented amounts of big data to drive insights and seller strategies.

Jeth Soetoyo, Founder of Pintu, joins us to examine the widening application of blockchain and crypto-assets in Indonesia. Jeth cuts through the hype to make an easy-to-grasp and persuasive case for the steady growth of adoption of crypto-assets such as Pintu's own Rupiah Token. He describes Indonesia as very "forward looking" in terms of crypto asset regulation. Jeth sees in blockchain the ability to accelerate Indonesia's transition towards an open financial system and increase financial inclusion for the underbanked. 

AC Ventures Founder Adrian Li reflects on some of the dramatic changes that have set in to Indonesia's start-up scene since he began VC investing in 2013, from the significant improvement in founder pedigree to the steady rise of Fintech as his favorite sector. He also opines on where a comparison with China can inform successful venture building in Indo, and where it can mislead. Adrian also discusses how he guides his entrepreneurs in pursuing growth-versus-monetization in SEA's largest market. 

Visinema Founder Angga Sasongko is the director of some of Indonesia's most celebrated films, such as "Hari untuk Amanda" and "Filosofi Kopi". Angga reflects on a range of topics, from the necessary balance between technology and the humanities in Indonesia's educational system, to the impact of the smartphone on film & entertainment, to collaboration with leading tech firms such as Gojek in his recent work.

The Indonesian Logistics Association recently reported that logistics volumes fell 60-70% from before the onset of COVID-19. e-commerce logistics enablers however grew 40%+ in 2020. Leading Indonesian logistics start-up Shipper delivered a stunning 6X growth last year. Shipper Co-founder Phil Opamuratawongse walks listeners through the company's success in onboarding e-commerce merchants to its technology-enabled "first mile" services. He also shares some intensely personal stories of how the pandemic impacted both him and the company at large.

Indonesians spend an astounding nine hours daily on their smartphones. Country Director for Facebook in Indonesia Pieter Lydian joins us to share insights into the 98% of Indonesia's online population that consultant PWC claims interact with its Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms. He also profiles the company's broad-based push to super-charge the country's warungs and MSME's as they make the digital transition. An impressive 84% of MSME's active on FB report generating revenues from the platform, revealing FB’s criticality to SME’s during COVID.