Speed Dating Became an Event for Startups to Get Funding

As many as 85 local and foreign startups demonstrated their business for the opportunity to get funding from 29 investors and venture capital companies in Speed ​​Dating organized by CoHive and GK Plug and Play. This event was specially designed to facilitate digital startups under the supervision of these companies.

In Speed ​​Dating activities, each participant or startup company has 15 minutes to convince an investor about his business idea. After that, they move on to the next investor to do the same. Here, only selected startups can do the pitching to more than one investor.

Director of GK Plug and Play Acceleration (GK-PnP) Indonesia, Aaron Nio, said that his party wanted to bridge and provide good solutions for startups and investors or corporations. Speed ​​Dating is one of the ways that can be done aside from organizing an acceleration program as usual.

“We want to provide win-win solutions for startups and investors. Hopefully, it can help startups find investors and the funding they need to increase the scale of their business,” he said. GK-PnP itself is an accelerator startup organization from Silicon Valley which was invited by Indonesia President, Joko Widodo.

This Speed Dating Was Expected to Solve Startup’s Problems

Furthermore, Aaron also hoped that this speed dating activity could answer the main problem experienced by many startup companies. These usually include the difficulty of getting access to funding and mentoring. Through this event, startups can network with potential mentors or investors.

Thus, in the long run, it can make the ecosystem of startups more developed and eventually encourage digital economic growth in Indonesia. He added that this time his party collaborated with CoHive, a joint workspace provider that had the largest community of startups.

With CoHive, he considered that the efforts to reach out to the community of startup companies could run more effectively. “We can see the effectiveness of this collaboration like the increase of participants. We hope that this collaboration with Co-Hive can have a greater impact on startups,” he added.

Since its establishment in February 2016, he said that GK-PnP had accelerated more than 50 startups in various verticals. Then, they brought them together with various large corporations for collaboration opportunities. The event itself was held in two sessions. There is also a talk show session.

The Event Was Participated by More Startups Than Before

The CEO and Co-Founder of CoHive, Jason Lee stated that this activity is in line with the company’s commitment to supporting the ecosystem of startups in the country. As a company that has around 9,000 members from 9,000 companies, this event is crucial.

Aside from providing office facilities for the members, holding events that support the growth of startups is important for co-working space. “The number of participants who attended this time doubled compared to speed dating that was held last March,” he said.

It shows the great enthusiasm of startups and also the interest of the investors. Jason also explained that the committee curates the startups in advance based on funding needs, business models, and the technology or products offered. This process is carried out to increase the effectiveness of this speed dating.