Meeting Startup Founders in Depok, Indonesia

Last Saturday, a couple of us headed south of Jakarta to visit the city of Depok, which takes about an hour to two to reach by car from the heart of the capital. Why Depok? We had already heard so much about it and just had to see things for ourselves. In short, the startup scene here is small but is pretty active and encouraging.

We had lunch with the good folks from Teknojurnal (thanks Firman and Putra) before meeting with about 30 founders and developers. It was very educational for us, and most of the founders we met were involved with mobile-based game development studios, but there are others who are working on e-commerce and social networking related products. I’m sure there are many more amazing Depok-based startups which we haven’t met as well.

The core group of entrepreneurs are mainly from the University of Indonesia, which is one of the best schools in the country. The startup scene here is vibrant but small, according to many of the local entrepreneurs. But it’s growing and many hope Depok could be something like Bandung, where the Bandung Institute of Technology and the Foweb Community are located. The city also has a community called Depok Mobi, which holds monthly meet ups focusing on mobile technologies.

Many founders say are seeing more graduates from the University of Indonesia stepping out to create their own companies. Mega Denditya, a recent graduate of that school and the co-founder of Chocoarts is only 20 years old this year. The other founders mostly fall between the ages of 20 to 25.

I came to understand that most game developers are building content for the Symbian mobile operating system. Nokia handsets are still the mainstream mobile device used by Indonesians. Nokia has been active engaging with developers in Depok. There were some, like Tempa Labs, who build games and host them on mig33. Android and iOS developers aren’t the mainstream although most claim that they know how to build apps for the two platforms.

Capital is scarce in Depok. Most developers have to do contractual work for other companies while building their own product to sustain the startup’s financial health. A fun fact that I learned was that Chocoarts, a company which we featured a couple of months ago, is likely the first startup from Depok to have raised funding. The founder, Mega, though happy to be the first, is very focused on getting his games built and launched.

All in all, the startup scene here is still very much in a growing stage. I mean, this isn’t news anymore. Most of parts of Asia are still in the infant stage when it comes to startup culture. But the energy feels right at Depok. I can’t comment too much as everything above is merely what I have learned thus far. Our conversation with the community at Depok will continue, and we’ve promised to pay them a visit again next month.