Overseas Investors talk about the Indonesian Market [Live Blog]

As the final panel for the morning at Startup Asia Jakarta 2012 saw moderator Vanessa Tan asking a group of overseas investors about their experiences and thoughts on the Indonesian market. Panelists included (pictured left to right):

• Takeshi Ebihara, Batavia Incubator, Rebright Partners, Inc.
• Takahiro Suzuki, CyberAgent Ventures
• Alexander Pavlov, ru-Net
• Tatsuo Tsutsumi, GREE Ventures

#12:31: (On Indonesian market potential) Ebihara: Why does everyone ask that question? The economic data has a really sexy momentum and its very big and growing fast.

Alex: I think it’s all about replication, Indonesia is a huge market, but at some point in time it will have several multi-million dollar startups, that will be worth investing in.

Tatsuo: GREE is a social gaming company, but we’re interested in other online businesses, of course.

#12:34: (On investments so far) Alex: Due to the structure of our fund we’re very flexible. For ido we’re looking for local partner, not early stage deals. But 5 to 15 million dollar investments. It seems to me that capital flows here as such that securing follow up investments will be a challenge so our funds should be enough to sustain a company for a long time. … We invested in VMG group in Vietnam, and with regards to Indonesia we should have some news later in the year, for sure.

#12:38: Takahiro: If there are no startups in the fields we are focused on we’re also thinking about creating new businesses with local entrepreneurs.

#12:39: Tatsuo: In Indonesia there are few venture capitals here. Our fund is only 25 million dollars, we usually invest 300K to 1m (US) in one transaction.

#12:40: Takahiro: We hosted a networking event and we’re hoping local entrepreneurs can find new ideas for their business. Next time we hope to do another to help the startup ecosystem.

#12:45: (On difficulties to look out for in Indonesia) Ebihara: Here in Indonesia the microeconomics and politics are well managed, so for me personally I don’t have any difficulties. The growth momentum here is great, even totally different from China or India.

Alex: In any developing country when doing a late stage deal, legal things are important. Shareholders deal need to enforce all the provisions, so establishing a legal structure is quite tough, like many SEA countries. But there are ways to overcome this. I’d like to see a founder looking to build a billion dollar company. A lot of talent is emerging here, and I hope we can see some entrepreneurs step into this ‘billion dollar’ mindset. But if you look at Tokopedia, they are developing very nicely and I think they will have a very nice future down the road.

Takahiro: There are two reasons why we invested in Tokopedia. Founder is passionate and clever and has what it takes to win in this market. And e-commerce and C2C will definitely be big in this market.

Tatsuo: We haven’t yet invested in Indonesian companies, but we’re in the signing process with one. In the near future I hope we can announce our deal.