Ruangguru and Alodokter Chance to Become Indonesia’s 6th Unicorn

Not even one education (edutech) and health (healthtech) startup have a unicorn status, even though it has been the target of investors since 2018. In the midst of the corona pandemic, startup transactions in these two sectors have also jumped and have increased opportunities to increase valuations.

At the beginning of the year, at least four educational startups received funding namely Arkademi, Pahamify, Gredu, and Zenius. In the second and third quarters, four others, namely Eduka, ProSpark, Infradigital, and Kiddo received fresh funds.

Even so, based on Crunchbase data, Ruangguru is approaching a valuation of US$ 1 billion (IDR 14 trillion) or the unicorn scale. This education startup received eight investments and is already in the C series round.

Meanwhile, Indonesian health startups have not received fresh funds this year. In fact, CB Insights noted, funding to this sector globally broke a record US$ 2.8 billion for 162 agreements in the third quarter.

Health and Education Startup Application Users Increase due to the Pandemic

However, based on data from Crunchbase, an Indonesian health startup that is part of the C series, Alodokter. Meanwhile, Halodoc is in the series B stage with three times the funding. Mandiri Capital President Director Eddi Danusaputro said that education and health startups were indeed in demand by investors during the Covid-19 event.

“Edutech and healthtech have a large upside growth potential next year, because they are the basic needs of everyone,” Managing Partner of Kejora Ventures Eri Reksoprodjo said. Based on data from the World Economic Forum (WEF) last July, the use of online learning applications has increased in ASEAN due to the impact of the coronavirus.

From a healthtech perspective, Frost and Sullivan estimates that the value of the health industry in Indonesia was US$ 21 trillion last year, up from US$ 7 trillion in 2014. Even so, the opportunities for education and health startups to become the sixth unicorn depend on the scale of each company. “If they have funded four times or series D and above, they might become a unicorn,” said Eri.

Currently, Indonesia has one decacorn or a valuation of more than US$ 10 billion (IDR 140 trillion), namely Gojek. In addition, four unicorns are Tokopedia, Traveloka, Bukalapak, and OVO. Opportunity for Ruangguru to Become a Unicorn From the education sector, Ruangguru has been predicted to become a unicorn since last year.

Former Minister of Communication and Informatics (Kominfo) Rudiantara even greeted Ruangguru CEO Adamas Belva Syah Devara when talking about jumbo startups at the East Ventures 10th Anniversary event in October last year.

RuangGuru Users have Increased since the Distance Learning Policy

Ruangguru also received series C funding of US$ 150 million or around IDR 2.1 trillion in December 2019. It was led by United States (US) venture capital, GGV Capital and General Atlantic, and followed by UOB Venture Management, EV Growth, as well as several other investors.

However, Tech In Asia reports that the startup’s valuation is estimated at only US$ 500 million or around IDR 7 trillion. Its value is still far below the unicorn scale. Even so, the company was listed in the 50 most transformative education companies in the world, according to Global Silicon Valley last month.

This edutech startup is the only representative from Southeast Asia. Since the beginning of the year, the company has also attracted five million new customers. The Free Online School Service from Ruangguru has also been used by 10 million students.

This increase in use is in line with government policies that urge teachers and students to carry out teaching and learning processes from home during the pandemic. Even so, CEO of BRI Ventures Nicko Widjaja considered that video-conferencing application providers such as Zoom and Google Meet benefited more during the corona pandemic.