5 years in review: Indonesia’s growth in startup funding since 2011

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Indonesia’s digital economy is growing, along with the amount of venture capital flowing into the ecosystem. But by how much?

Tech in Asia’s database logs Indonesian startup investments since 2011. In this year-on-year comparison, we try to work out patterns in funding development.

One important caveat. Many companies choose not to announce a round of funding, or else withhold details of the funding amount. This can be for a number of reasons, such as wanting to hide a competitive advantage or disadvantage, or not wanting to alert the tax man. Plus, regional startups not headquartered in Indonesia but who do a great deal of business in the country are on the rise, and that warps the Indonesian numbers somewhat. Rocket Internet’s Lazada or Thailand-based aCommerce are two examples.

Another thing to keep in mind – Indonesia’s tech ecosystem is still so small that one individual startup’s sizeable funding round may result in a spike for the entire year.

Here are some graphs to think about:

The rise in total funding

Funding figures are in millions of US dollars. Data was compiled by Rose Dao and Tinnike Lie of Tech in Asia’s research team.

Startup funding in Indonesia experienced a serious surge in 2014. Tokopedia’s US$100 million round was the primary driver of this spike. It completely changed the scales. Startup investments prior to 2014 were below or in single-digit millions.

In 2015, it’s the US$500 million funding announcement by ecommerce newcomer MatahariMall that contributed to the apparent continued exponential growth. MatahariMall is backed entirely by Lippo Group, an Indonesian conglomerate. The size of that round has come into question, and it’s more likely MatahariMall is operating on less than that for now.

Lastly, one startup that had a massive breakthrough in 2015 is not represented in this graph – Go-Jek. The bike-hailing startup confirmed a major round of funding in October but did not specify how much it got from Sequoia Capital. Forbes pegged it at a rumored US$200 million.

Let’s look at the graph again without MatahariMall’s freak investment, instead putting in Go-Jek’s purported US$200 million.

Rise in total funding without MatahariMall, plus Go-Jek

Funding figures are in millions of US dollars. Data was compiled by Rose Dao and Tinnike Lie of Tech in Asia’s research team.

Steady growth in seed funding, later stages volatile

Number of deals