6 Startups Graduated from Grab Ventures Velocity Batch Program 4 X Sembrani Wira

Three of the six finalist startups Grab Ventures Velocity (GVV) Batch 4 X Sembrani Wira have managed to get funding during a training and mentoring program that lasted for 16 weeks.

The three startups are iSeller with pre-series B funding, Dagangan with Series A, and majoowith pre-series A. In addition to the three startups, other finalists in this program are Crewdible, Cooklab, and Octopus.

To note, these GVV Batch 4 finalists have tested their products and business ideas by collaborating in the Grab ecosystem, such as GrabKitchen, GrabFood, GrabMart, and GrabExpress.

Not only participating in the training program, but the finalists also participated in Impact Day to present and introduce their business ideas to venture capital as well as sharing sessions with the Group CEO and Co-Founder of Grab, Anthony Tan.

After graduating, the six startups will have the opportunity to continue their collaboration with Grab services. One of them is providing services at GrabMerchant Partner Solutions.

“They have gone through a pilot program in the Grab ecosystem and will continue to collaborate with us. Grab also thanks BRI Ventures for always supporting this program,” said Country Managing Director of Grab Indonesia, Neneng Goenadi, in an official statement received on Thursday. (25/11/2021).

Meanwhile, according to the CEO of BRI Ventures, Nicko Widjaja, these six finalists are selected startups that do not have great potential in their respective industries, but can also have a positive impact on the growth of national SMEs.

“BRI Ventures can really be a part of the GVV Batch 4 X Sembrani Wira program to provide support in terms of networking, mentorship, and also access to venture capital funding for the finalists,” said Nicko.

Collaborating with BRI Ventures, Grab Ventures Velocity Batch 4 Launches

To note, Grab has again announced a startup accelerator program that it initiated, namely Grab Ventures Velocity (GVV) Batch 4 x Sembrani Wira in June 2021. In this year’s program, Grab collaborates with BRI Ventures with the theme Scaling Up Together: Empowering Startups, Supporting Microentrepreneurs .

According to Grab Indonesia Country Managing Director, Neneng Goenadi, this accelerator program aims to find and guide Indonesian post-seed startups. Primarily, startups whose products and services are focused on the needs of merchants and MSMEs.

“This accelerator program will be held for 12 to 16 weeks. Selected startups will get a series of workshops and the opportunity to test their products on the Grab platform,” said Neneng in a virtual press conference held recently.

Participate in Accelerating Solution Development for MSMEs

Neneng further explained to Grab Ventures Velocity this time, his party really wants to grow the Indonesian startup ecosystem while accelerating the development of solutions to help MSMEs develop in the digital world.

Therefore, Neneng invites startups that offer Point of Sale (POS) Customer Relationship Management, e-commerce enablement, Software as a Service (SaaS) including other services for MSMEs to join the program initiated by Grab.

“We chose to focus on startups that provide services for MSMEs, not only because we believe the market opportunity for them is very large, but also because there is a need to develop more solutions according to the needs of MSMEs so that they can also develop in the midst of the digital economy,” she said. 

Moreover, as is known, MSMEs are the backbone of the Indonesian economy. Therefore, with Grab’s efforts to help MSMEs develop in the midst of the digital economy through this program, they can play an important role in economic recovery.

From the investor side, BRI Ventures as the investment unit of BRI’s bank with MSMEs as their main strategy, has just announced a new managed fund ‘Sembrani Kiqani’ which focuses on targeting the D2C segment to improve the MSME ecosystem in Indonesia.