5 Startup Indonesia that Successfully Go International

When talking about a successful startup Indonesia in the international world, surely what comes to your mind is Gojek. In fact, there are still many startups in this country that managed to penetrate the international arena from various fields.

The digital revolution that began since the change of analog technology to digital technology has changed various aspects of life throughout the world. Changes that began to be felt in the 1980s with the introduction of computers and then exploded in the early 1990s via the Internet were able to change the lifestyle and patterns of people’s lives.

This digital revolution is making major changes throughout the world. Effectiveness and efficiency as a result of the application of digital technology is a real need in society, especially to facilitate things. And this continues to grow along with technological developments and innovations in the digital field.

Indonesia as a large country with a demographic that is dominated by productive age has not escaped the development of this technology. Indonesia has even declared a vision of Indonesia Digital Nation, one of which is to become the largest digital economy in Southeast Asia by 2020.

Indonesian Startups that Expand Internationally

Being a Digital Nation is to be a country that provides various facilities and effective and efficient life. Is Indonesia on-track towards this? It could be if seen from the enthusiasm and innovation of the nation’s children in the digital industry.

This indicates one thing, that in this digital era, Indonesia is basically finding momentum. Many digital startups that are no longer comfortable are only big in the country, and they are able to cross national borders, expand to other countries. These startups are:

1. Traveloka

Traveloka is a startup that is engaged in travel. This company provides ticket purchase services, whether it be plane tickets, trains, recreation, and others. The company also provides online hotel and lodging booking services for both domestic and international travel.

Founded in 2012, this startup was initiated by three IT practitioners from Indonesia. The founders are Derianto Kusuma, Albert Zhang and Ferry Unardi. The company serves more than 200,000 travel routes throughout the world and has worked with more than 100 domestic and international airlines.

They claim that the platform has the largest and varied inventory of accommodation bookings. Traveloka also provides more than 40 payment methods to support transaction convenience for users.

On its official website, Traveloka claims that the application has been downloaded more than 30 million times and is the most popular application in Southeast Asia. Even so, this startup is a startup that was directly affected by the pandemic in 2020.

2. Adskom

This startup was founded in 2013 by former Koprol CTO duet Daniel Armanto and practitioner/entrepreneur digital business Italo Gani. This platform is designed to energize the industry and give benefits for all stakeholders. After opening branches in Singapore and the United States, in 2016 Adskom officially spread its wings to India.

For information, in Singapore Adskom acts as a holding company that they use to manage investment and fundraising. Whereas in the US, the Adskom office is used to recruit engineering teams.

This advertising technology company has opened an office in SCBD, Jakarta. Supported by Japanese investor Rebright Partners, the company, which was only established last month, offers automation of selling digital advertising space to publishers through a self-made Supply-Side Platform that is claimed to be the first in Southeast Asia.

3. Bridestory

Bridestory is a startup that can connect bride and groom vendors with wedding organizer service providers and wedding needs. This Marketplace was founded by Kevin Mintaraga in 2014. Bridestory has now spread its wings to three countries outside Indonesia.

But in 2019, Bridestory was acquired by Indonesian unicorn, Tokopedia. Tokopedia claimed that their company had already acquired all Bridestory physical and digital assets. Not only that, intellectual property and human resources were also acquired by the unicorn.

The agreement also saw Bridestory founder and CEO Kevin Mintaraga join Tokopedia management as Vice President, while Bridestory co-founder Doni Hanafi would take the position of Bridestory COO. However, in terms of operations, the two companies will continue to develop their products and run their businesses independently.

4. Hijup

Hijup is listed as one of the first Islamic e-commerce fashion in the world. This startup, founded by Diajeng Lestari, has expanded to Malaysia by opening an offline store in one of the malls there. Not only that, in 2016, Diajeng, together with the Head of Bekraf, Triawan Munaf attended the signing of the Indonesia-UK strategic cooperation in the field of creative industries.

Founded in 2011, Hijup is a platform with an online mall concept that provides various products and works by Indonesian Muslim designers. Products provided include clothing, hoods, mukenas, bags, shoes, and accessories. The company consistently carries the mission to display Indonesian local brands to the world.

5. Investree

Investree is a fintech startup that offers peer to peer (P2P lending) lending services. Their platform has spread to Vietnam under the name e-Loan. Not only in Vietnam, reportedly at the end of 2018, but the startup founded by Adrian Gunadi 3 years ago will also expand its services to Thailand.

This startup was established at the end of 2015 by two people namely Aida Sutanto and Adrian Gunadi. The company has channeled loans specifically to advance MSMEs in Indonesia.

Indonesia Has Become One of the World-Producing Unicorn Countries

The influx of funding from many investors to various startups in Indonesia provides more opportunities for startup founders to reach a wider market. Not only that, but many local startups have also managed to get awards from various international events.

Based on data from the Hurun Research Institute last month, Indonesia was among the 10 most unicorn producing countries in the world. Indonesia now has 6 unicorns, namely Gojek, Traveloka, Tokopedia, Bukalapak and OVO.

The number of unicorns in Indonesia has the potential to increase due to the large number of internet users reaching 30 million. In addition, startup Indonesia are also the second largest investment target in Southeast Asia.