Indonesia-focused venture capital firm East Ventures, has on Tuesday announced the 30 selected team champions from the coaching and hackathon program of Indonesia PASTI BISA, Maju Terus Pantang Mundur (Keep Moving Forward, Never Give Up) or IDPB MTPM.

In a statement, East Ventures said the champion teams will receive a total funding of IDR 7.5 billion (around $500,000) in the form of uncapped convertible notes, including the benefits and perks from the program’s prominent partners. 

As the fourth initiative of Indonesia PASTI BISA, IDPB MTPM is the program led by East Ventures with hand-in-hand collaboration and support from East Ventures’ strong ecosystem and partners as the response to the current rampant employee layoffs in the tech ecosystem.

Indonesia PASTI BISA itself is a collaborative movement spearheaded by East Ventures since 2020 to support communities during the crisis in Indonesia.

IDPB MTPM consists of two main highlights, (1) the coaching and hackathon program and (2) the job board.

In the same belief of the importance of speed and agility during a crisis, IDPB MTPM was launched 36 hours after the ideation.

The coaching and hackathon program aimed to support the impacted talents who want to build their entrepreneurial journey or who want to be aspiring entrepreneurs.

The program has completed all subsequent activities, from the open application to the demo day.

With a total of 270 submissions, which includes 551 people from 50 cities, the 120 shortlisted teams had gone through 11 days of coaching and hackathon (in both online and offline format) with East Ventures and experts in the industry.

The selected teams presented their business ideas and MVPs to the judges on 13 and 14 December.

The judges were Avina Sugiarto, Partner at East Ventures, Melisa Irene, Partner at East Ventures, Abraham Hidayat, Managing Partner of Skystar Capital, Andreas Dymasius, Principal of Skystar Capital, and Edoardo Prawira Judokusumo, Principal of Sinar Mas Digital Ventures (SMDV). 

The 30 team champions selected are Aksata, AYANGKU, Barengan, BotaNize, Cios, Disanitasi, Dole, Fellas, Foodtrition, God Army, Hello, HomHub, IJO, Kommodity, Meramu, Middleboard, MIG, Montiro, Mutual, Qelas.id, Repax, Sak Kula, SAMA ERP, Sampai Pinter, SOCIO STARTUP INDONESIA, Solopreneurs AI, STEVOR, Sweetlift, Tryvel (Berpijar), and Tulisno. 

“Indonesia PASTI Bisa Maju Terus Pantang Mundur is proven to be a fast and practical initiative in supporting the impacted talents in the tech ecosystem amidst the hard times,” said Avina Sugiarto, Partner at East Ventures.

“IDPB MTPM has become a platform for aspiring entrepreneurs to develop their business ideas and MVPs, meet directly with expert coaches and connect with like-minded participants as they kick-start their entrepreneurial journey,

“We are heartened and pleased to work with over 27 partners, 35 coaches, and judges who volunteer their valuable times and efforts to support the program…We have met many aspiring entrepreneurs with great potential, and we look forward to seeing developments and excitement from the team champions,” he added.

As one of the coaches and moderators of the IDPB MTPM Program, Abraham Hidayat, Managing Partner of Skystar Capital, also shared his views that he hopes this program will create a lot of positive impacts.

“We hope that many will be inspired to use the less fortunate situation to rise and create something new, hopefully, get lots of ideas and be inspired to keep going despite of difficulties,

“I hope that digital talent can continue to develop and improve so that Indonesian digital talents will become one of the best in the world,” he added.

Sinar Mas Land Chief Digital Tech Ecosystem and Development Irawan Harahap said the digital sector is now a part of Sinar Mas Land’s growth as it continues to develop its tech ecosystem.

“We hope all team champions can make a great impact and we are also excited to welcome them at the Digital Hub, BSD City,” he added.

Luat Sihombing, Coordinator for Business Matchmaking at the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Indonesia, said that all players in the digital ecosystem share the same challenges today.

“We believe that the collaboration initiated by Indonesia PASTI BISA serves as solutions for talents in facing this difficult time,” he added.

Indonesia PASTI Bisa Maju Terus Pantang Mundur is supported by many partners, including Sinar Mas Land, Digital Hub, Sinar Mas Digital Ventures (SMDV), IDN Media, Katadata, Tech in Asia, ISMAYA, Triputra Agro Persada, Desty, Stockbit, Bibit, Fore, Biteship, DailySocial, Harian Kompas, Google, MySkill, Xendit, Hub.id, AWS, Alibaba Cloud, Moengage, Aman, Buzzy, WebEngage Startup Program, Hacktiv8, Impactto.io, and many others. 

East Ventures is a pioneering and leading sector-agnostic venture capital firm. Founded in 2009, the firm has transformed into a holistic platform that provides multi-stage investment, from seed to growth stage investments, for over 250 tech companies across Southeast Asia.

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