Remake City Jakarta: Startup Acceleration Program for Access to Funding

The startup ecosystem development in Indonesia has been growing rapidly since the last few years.  However, this development cannot be separated from the many challenges that must be faced by the startup founders, one of which is the lack of access to funding. Several ways have been taken by startups in Indonesia to get funding, including through investors, competitions, or by participating in acceleration programs.

The existence of the acceleration program itself has become a driving factor in the development of startup ecosystem. Remake City Jakarta, as one of the acceleration programs that focuses on social problem solving through innovative business, comes as a solution in meeting those needs.

The main objective of this program is to support social enterprises with high growth potential and entrepreneurial spirit, and connect them with impact investors. This program is an initiative from Crevisse Partners, a South Korean impact investor that supports the growth of social enterprise ecosystem in Asia by holding Remake City program in three countries, namely South Korea, Indonesia and Vietnam. In Indonesia, Crevisse Partners works with Instellar to organize Remake City Jakarta.

After 4 months acceleration program of Remake City Jakarta has been carried out, Instellar holds a Demo Day event to showcase four impact-driven startups, Eragano, Gandengtangan.org, Kostoom, and WeCare.id. These four impact startups have attended a series of workshops and coaching sessions with mentors and consultants which suits the needs of each business.

With the guidance provided during the program, the four Remake City Jakarta second batch participants are ready to further develop their businesses and receive investments. Eragano is an integrated financial platform and marketplace for smallholder farmers. Gandengtangan.org helps the unbankable micro businesses through peer-to-peer lending platforms. Kostoom connects customers and fashion businesses with home-based tailors through an integrated platform. Meanwhile, WeCare.id is a crowdfunding platform for underserved patients who need medical assistance.

Remake City Jakarta is a global accelerating program that focuses on solving social problems through innovative businesses. One of the important stages in Remake City Jakarta program is the Demo Day where four social enterprises will present their businesses and mission/social impact to public, investors, social entrepreneurship ecosystem supporters, and mass media. In addition, this Demo Day event is also to broaden the spirit of collaboration and technological innovation to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) through interactive discussion.

“Remake City Jakarta 2018 has been an important journey to discover and accelerate impact startups. We focused on pushing the limits of individual startups for the growth in the mainstream market and pursuing fundamental business and technological innovation. We are overwhelmed to introduce our teams through the Demo Day and to see the potential of the teams for creating bigger impact in Indonesia.”, explained Wonyoung Kim, Executive Director of Crevisse Partners.

The event started with opening remarks from Executive Director of Crevisse Partners, Wonyoung Kim, and CEO of Instellar, Romy Cahyadi.