 |
| Junita Ciputra, managing director of Indonesia’s Ciputra Group. |
Indonesia’s large family conglomerates seem
to all be getting into new forms of entrepreneurship, and at the moment, it’s
safe to say that the most unified and vibrant local sounding board is the tech
startup scene. Sinar Mas launched its own VC firm Sinar Mas Digital Ventures (SMDV) as a
separate entity, Lippo Group established Lippo Digital Ventures, which recently injected capital into local startup Gift Card Indonesia, and Bakrie Group
backed the new VC firm Convergence
Accel.
The Ciputra Group
has long been one of the most active players in Indonesia’s entrepreneurship
space. However, Junita Ciputra, managing director of the corporate dynasty and
daughter of the company’s iconic founder Ir Ciputra, says that what her
conglomerate offers fledgling founders is not money, but instead fundamental
startup education, key network contacts, and an entrepreneurial view of the
world. All of Ciputra Group’s entrepreneurship programs can be classified as
corporate social responsibility (CSR), according to Ciputra.
“When my father
started the entrepreneurship program, everyone thought it would be impossible.
But from our initiatives, we now know it can be done,” explains Ciputra. “We
grew up in a business-minded environment and we know this can be taught. But a
lot of families are not as fortunate. For me, it motivates and touches me
to see how people transform; students before and after our university program,
migrant workers before and after our courses.”
A heavy hitter with fingers in several pies
Ciputra runs a
number of initiatives aimed at building the startup community in Indonesia. The
first and most obvious one is the famous Ciputra GEPI
Incubator (CGI)
located in DBS Bank Tower in Central Jakarta. GEPI is short for the Global Entrepreneurship Program Indonesia,
and CGI offers facilities, services, and mentorship for early stage startups.
It also serves as a co-working space and community hub for meetups and
information sessions about entrepreneurship. CGI is a hotspot for Jakarta’s
tech startups and is a routine stop-in for most foreign investors passing
through town.
Along with its involvement in Endeavour Global, the University of Ciputra Entrepreneurship
Center (UCEC) is another staple in the academic community. According to UCEC
director Ivan Sandjaja, the University of Ciputra (which is the main school)
has graduated 1,580 students in the past five years who have created 832 new
companies, created 3,500 new jobs, and generated more than US$4.5 million in
total revenue. Meanwhile in Jakarta, UCEC claims to have provided
entrepreneurial training to more than 5,000 people annually. These people
consist mainly of migrant workers, women in tough circumstances – such as the
former sex workers of Surabaya’s notorious Dolly district – and Indonesia’s
underprivileged youth.
Tech: It’s what’s for dinner
Ciputra says her
company has a goal to educate four million local entrepreneurs by 2030. That
number qualifies as a big fat audacious mission, even for one of the nation’s
largest holding companies, considering that the current number is still only in
the tens of thousands. According to her, however, the internet can be one way
to help hit the ambitious four million mark. “It’s truly amazing what the tech
industry is doing here,” says Ciputra. “I think because the traffic is so bad
here that people naturally turn to the internet.”
Enter University of
Ciputra Entrepreneurship Online (UCEO),
the conglomerate’s free open online courses for aspiring founders. According to
Ciputra, UCEO is a new initiative, but has already rounded up 35,000 users.
It’s important to note that UCEO is essentially a series of videos followed by
a set of self assessment quizzes. It does not issue its users any sort of
recognized diploma other than a certificate of completion. Currently, it
doesn’t serve as a comprehensive substitute for attending UC or UCEC, but
according to Ciputra, it does create a starting point for those interested in
becoming founders.
UCEO provides
basic information on things like leadership, integrity, and how to build a
business from several big players like Jakarta’s governor Basuki Tjahaja
Purnama and Sen Senjaya, professor from the Faculty of Business and Economics
at Monash University. The videos are free to the public after registering a
name and email address. Users can also join the discussion forums to meet with
other participants from all over Indonesia.
Ciputra says she
has no intention to launch a venture capital fund for startups in Indonesia
like the other big families have done, as it might pose a conflict of interest
with the holding’s other startup initiatives – which are technically CSR
activities. “But really, it’s more about the principle of it,” explains
Ciputra. “I feel it’s a moral hazard to be an investor in startups but also try
to help them grow.”
However, that
doesn’t stop her from cheering on players like William Tanuwijaya or Nadiem
Makarim. Ciputra claims admiration for sites like Tokopedia, Go-Jek, and Qraved, which she believes are helping
solve the bottleneck problems of shopping, transport, and convenience in
Jakarta.
Editing by Paul Bischoff; lead
image from UNIDO
0 Comments
