Startup Studio Needs to Develop a Greencorn Concept

The Indonesian Technology Startup Association (Atsindo) considers that the Startup Studio Indonesia program is necessary to roll out the development of startups with the greencorn concept. Chairperson of the Indonesian Technology Startup Association (Atsindo) Handito Joewono said that the concept of greencorn is a startup development that relies on owned resources and grows sustainably in addressing community problems.

Handito said that the shortage of the unicorn concept is a startup that has developed due to an injection of capital from new investors so that its founders tend to be marginalized because of deluded shares. “In fact, some have even sold 100 percent of their shares and left the startups they founded,” he said.

He said that the greencorn concept needed to be implemented immediately, because the development of startups with the unicorn concept began to doubt its investors. This is indicated by the slackening of the disbursement of funds from investors because many unicorn-concept startups lost their performance during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Because of Covid-19, many startups have lost their business, and investor confidence is collapsing, even in Europe. They are starting to choose which startups are suitable to invest in, “he said. Quoted from the official website of the Ministry of Communication and Informatics (Kemkominfo), Startup Studio Indonesia is an intensive program for early-stage startups to accelerate business scale.

The Director General of Informatics Applications (Aptika) of the Ministry of Communication and Information, Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan said that the program initiatives are to facilitate funding sources, mentoring, cooperation with world investment institutions, bureaucracy, and conducive regulations.

He said that in contrast to the National 1000 Startup Digital Movement which is looking for startups at the ideation stage who are designing MVPs, the Startup Studio Indonesia program targets startups at the angel to pre-series stage A.

Startup Studio Has a Positive Impact on Indonesian Economy

The Indonesian Venture Capital Association (Amvesindo) considers that the government program, Startup Studio, has positive implications for the domestic startup ecosystem. Treasurer of the All Indonesia Venture Capital Association (Amvesindo) Edward Ismawan Chamdani said the program proved that the government was increasingly playing a role in bridging actors to investors and increasing the potential for the birth of new unicorns.

“Presenting a unicorn will be important to inspire other startups and also provide awareness to investors about the potential of the startup ecosystem in Indonesia,” he said, Monday (30/11/2020).

However, he said that the current challenge is the casual meeting process. The reason is, if not in the conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic, the acceleration process will be more efficient if the actors and investors can meet directly. Furthermore, he is also optimistic that the next sector that will have the potential to become a unicorn will be born from the fields of Fintech, Edutech and Healthtech.

As a note, until now, steps to support the growth of digital business aspects have been carried out by the Ministry of Communication and Information through three development programs, namely the National 1000 Digital Startup Movement, Next Indonesia Unicorn (NextICorn), and Startup Studio Indonesia. The government also targets to have three new unicorns by 2024.

Considered Unable to Give Birth to a New Unicorn

The Indonesian Creative Digital Association assessed that the Startup Studio Indonesia program that was launched by the government was still not enough to produce new unicorns in the future. Founder of the Indonesian Creative Digital Association (Additive) Saga Iqranegara said that until now there is still no government program that can create the birth of a new unicorn in Indonesia.

“The country is well present to develop a digital ecosystem with this activity. However, to become a unicorn is not enough. The road is still very long,” he said, Monday (30/11/2020).

Furthermore, he explained that the best step at this time was to facilitate and endorse domestic applications, even to use them. According to him, this is better than presenting a variety of other startups.