Kaskus co-founder is back with an ‘impact investment’

Campaign.com CEO William Gondokusumo (center) with Kaskus’ Ken Dean Lawadinata (R) and David Soukhasing of Indonesia Angel Investment Network (L).

Ken Dean Lawadinata, best known for building Indonesian online forum Kaskus together with Andrew Darwis, told the media last year he’d take a break from tech after selling Kaskus.

Now he’s back, with an investment in Campaign.com – an early-stage startup that helps community leaders organize around a social cause.

The amount was not disclosed at today’s launch event. It was labeled an impact investment, and Lawadinata stressed he sees it as a long-term bet.

“When I invested in Kaskus in 2008, I thought it’s because Kaskus can bring a change, as a voice for the voiceless. Campaign, I believe, will also bring change. It speaks to my heart.”

Campaign, led by CEO William Gondokusumo, is essentially a tech-enabled community empowerment organization.

It works with communities who want to achieve societal change to define campaign goals, helps them set up websites and monitoring tools, and connects them to a wider network. It has a companion app that links community organizers to each other and, in the future, will be developed in accordance with the growing community’s needs, Gondokusumo said.

Books and tigers

Image from WWF’s “Double Tiger” campaign. Photo credit: WWF.

One cause Campaign has worked with is a scheme to save the Sumatran tiger in collaboration with WWF. Another was a campaign to spark interest in book reading.

While some of its consulting services are free, the startup plans to make money through additional consulting, delivering customized campaigning sites, and helping larger organizations run and monitor their campaigns.

Unlike petition sites such as Change.org, or crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter – both specialize in solving one specific need in a campaign’s lifecycle – Campaign.com aims to build lasting communities that continue to meet and collaborate on a regular basis.

Kaskus, the online forum Darwis started in 1999 and later joined by Lawadinata, who took over as CEO, is known for its community spirit. Frequent commentators developed their own coded language, which turned into everyday slang used by young Indonesians. Last year, a feature film about the founding story of Kaskus played in Indonesian movie theaters.

With the investment, Lawadinata plans to advise the startup but says he won’t be involved in the day-to-day operations.