A small crowd of well-dressed individuals assembled at the Ritz Carlton Hotel Jakarta on October 1st 2015. Some were businessmen from traditional sectors like oil and gas, or food and beverage. Some were lawyers, others tech entrepreneurs, and a few were experienced venture capitalists and private equity investors. Overall, there were close to 100 people. Each of them might turn into an angel investor, ready to put their money at work in Indonesia’s tech sector. This is a great news for local startups.
The purpose of the event was to introduce high-net-worth individuals to the ins and outs of angel investing in tech startups. How is it different to other types of investment? How can angel investors contribute to the success of a company? What exit scenarios can be expected?
The day-long event was led by Tugce Ergul from Angel Labs – a San Francisco-based organization that sees itself as the world’s “first investment accelerator.” Angel Labs builds connections in a country by partnering with wealth management groups, or investment banks. It asks them to invite their clients to one of Angel Lab’s workshops. “The second layer,” Tugce says, “is to find one or two people who will champion the initiative – a wealthy individual who knows all the billionaires in the country, so he can invite his friends.”
For the Jakarta event, Tugce had found her champion in Shinta Dhanuwardoyo. The two women share a mission: improve opportunities for promising entrepreneurs – and create wealth for smart investors at the same time.
Shinta Dhanuwardoyo organizes ID Byte, an event series that connects the dots between capital, entrepreneurs, and local and international knowledge networks. The angel investor workshop in collaboration with Angel Labs was just one event among many in ID Byte’s schedule, but possibly the most impactful in terms of outcome.
The visible interest in learning about angel investing from a strong turnout of newcomers is a good signal for early-stage startups. What’s more, Shinta took the opportunity to announce the emergence of her own angel investment club: Angel eQ. The club already has 15 committed members, including Convergence Ventures’ partner Donald Wihardja, private equity investor Sandiaga Uno, celebrity investor Erick Thohir, Erik Meijer of Indosat, Harry Nugraha of Intel, and Air Asia’s Tony Fernandes.
The announcement of the Angel eQ network comes shortly after ANGIN, another Indonesian angel investment club, added 11 new members to its network, now counting 26 angels. Among the new faces of the ANGIN network are Grace Tahir, director of the Mayapada Hospital, Izak Jenie, the director of 7-Eleven Indonesia, and Veronika Lukito, founder and CEO of Berkeley Investment Asia. The ANGIN angel network differs from Angel eQ in that is doesn’t exclusively look at tech startups. ANGIN has funded social impact and consumer goods companies without strong tech components, but is also increasingly looking at tech companies.
We hope that this great initiative will create greater impacts to Indonesia’s tech landscape.
Original article by Tech In Asia
Attributed to: Nadine Freischlad