Why telcos are ideally positioned to scale Indonesian startups (#StartupAsia preview)

Jakarta’s three biggest telco companies are XL Axiata, Indosat, and Telkom Indonesia. Quarter after quarter, all three firms are witnessing increased mobile data usage by their customers, and all three are actively involved in Indonesia’s tech startup scene.

Indosat CEO Alexander Rusli tells Tech in Asia that to create the right exit environment, telco leaders must work today to change the thinking of the nation’s more conservative investors. Rusli and Indosat seem to be leading by example, as back in May the telco launched a US$50 million venture capital fund for Jakarta’s startups, alongside Japanese conglomerate SoftBank as its partner. Indosat also powers Jakarta’s Ideabox accelerator for early-stage tech ventures in Indonesia.

In August, Telkom Indonesia announced it would invest US$200 million into the archipelago’s tech startups. President director Arief Yahya calls the initiative a corporate venture capital fund focusing on local and US startups, and is confident that it will be the largest of its kind coming out of Indonesia. Telkom also jointly runs the capital’s Indigo Fenox incubator.

See: Indonesia’s Telkom partners with VC to launch Indigo Fenox incubator

Shortly after XL Axiata acquired local competitor Axis for US$865 million, it announced a partnership with Korean telco subsidiary SK Planet to invest US$18.3 million in a new Indonesian ecommerce company named Elevenia.

So what exactly motivates these local telco players to spend big on cultivating Indonesia’s startups? Why are they ideally positioned to do so? We will interview Indosat’s acting chief digital services officer Tauseef Riaz, XL Axiata’s senior general manager of digital entertainment Revie Sylviana, and Telkom Indonesia’s Teguh Wahyono on stage at Startup Asia Jakarta 2014 to learn more.

Join us at Startup Asia Jakarta on November 26 and 27. You can sign up here.