Indonesia’s tech minister Rudiantara aims to raise $1B for startups

Indonesia’s information and communications technology minister Rudiantara.

Indonesia’s tech minister revealed earlier this week that he aims to raise about Rp 12 trillion (US$1 billion) to help develop Indonesia’s digital startups, reports Kompas.

Rudiantara, the minister of communications and information technology, claims the funds will be collected from the nation’s large conglomerates. His goal is not just to raise funds for local companies, but also to persuade local conglomerates who invest or save their money in foreign countries to think about investing in Indonesian companies instead.

“If the people who are capable of investing are just depositing their money in Singapore, they only get half a percent in growth per year, which is so small that it’s insignificant,” the minister told reporters. “More money needs to be put here in Indonesia.”

See: Indonesia’s tech minister wants to unblock Vimeo

The minister hopes that after raising the funds, he can place the money in a private venture capital firm; one that is created in the shadow of the ICT Ministry, but is not actually controlled by the government.

(Update 2/17/15: One of our readers clarified a translation, pointing out that the VC would not be state-owned and could be privately owned so long as it passed through the government’s selection process.)   

The minister said he hopes to raise all the funds some time within this year, and that he’s already received several “pledges” from major local players. While financial pledges and actual investments are two very different things, Rudiantara remains optimistic.

“I’ve just started, and I’ve already approached some conglomerates, but there will be more information to come on that later,” said the minister. Rudiantara made it clear that the funds raised would not just go toward Indonesia’s ecommerce startups, despite the sector’s vibrant growth in the archipelago.

(Source: Kompas)