Venture capital firms come together to support startups in COVID-19 Southeast Asian ground-up movement

Published on May 19, 2020

JAKARTA, May 14, 2020 – Openspace Ventures, MDI Ventures, and AC Ventures have launched a national initiative harnessing consumer and business spending to uplift the Southeast Asian start-up ecosystem in these uncertain times. This initiative followed the initial success of Singapore’s #SupportStartups initiative that was launched by Openspace Ventures, 500 Startups, and Cocoon Capital.

In a bid to provide an immediate boost to start-up revenues, the three venture capital firms are collating all promotional activities offered by startups across the archipelago under a single mission, #StartupBergerakBersama.

The offers will be featured on a combined website (id.supportstartups.com), leveraging the strength of the ecosystem to drive traffic to start-ups.

The 30 businesses currently listed on the website include B2C and B2B outfits across multiple sectors including fashion, F&B, logistics, e-commerce, enterprise SAAS, co-working space and digital wealth management. To promote social responsibility, and in line with government guidelines, events that encourage travel or physical gatherings will not be listed at this time.

fAmazon Web Services (AWS) is offering US$5,000 in promotional credits to each eligible startup that registers in the program. The credits will be provided under the AWS Activate program, which provides startups with low cost, easy-to-use infrastructure needed to scale and grow their business.

Hian Goh, partner at Openspace Ventures, said “Openspace’s efforts in responding to this crisis extend beyond our immediate portfolio to the larger ecosystem of start-ups. We know that all startups are at risk, and we need to try to protect them all. This is our community, and #SupportStartups is our way of saying that we’re 100% in this together”.

“Since the start of the COVID outbreak in Indonesia, MDI Ventures has launched a number of initiatives such as our weekly webinars and IndonesiaBergerak.com with the purpose of spreading information on the outbreak and insight how businesses can operate in current times. #StartupBergerakBersama will be the first initiative that helps startups gain traction in these tough times with our fellow VC friends. It is really great to see the ecosystem putting self interest aside to help one another and we are more than happy to collaborate with OpenSpace and AC Ventures on this.” said Donald Wihardja, CEO of MDI Ventures.

Laura Lestari, Senior Investment Associate from AC Ventures also added “since the start of this pandemic, we have been working with our portfolios on how to navigate through this crisis. It is uplifting to see so many collaborative efforts to help each other during this crisis. We hope, with Openspace and MDI, #StartupBergerakBersama can be one of the many platforms helping everyone to get through these challenging times.”

Interested start-ups with businesses in Indonesia are encouraged to submit their promotions via the website at http://id.supportstartups.com.