Taking stock of Jakarta Founder Institute grads: Who’s still standing?

Now that the Jakarta Founder Institute (JFI) has been running since 2011, Tech in Asia feels its time to reflect on its progress, and take inventory on startups that have entered the program and come out the other side.

The Founder Institute claims to be the world’s largest entrepreneur training and startup launch program. It aims to help aspiring founders around the world build sustainable tech enterprises, working closely with them from idea phase to product launch. It currently has chapters in more than 40 countries worldwide, many of which are emerging markets like Indonesia. The Jakarta chapter is headed by serial entrepreneur Andy Zain, who is also the managing director of local venture capital firm Mountain SEA Ventures.

See: Indonesia’s Ideabox accelerator unveils 2nd batch of finalists, featuring transport apps and foodtech

So where are the JFI grads now?

According to a JFI slideshare presentation, the program charges entrepreneurs a little more than US$5,000 to enter. That’s no small amount of pocket change for bootstrapping startups in Indonesia, as that money could also be well-spent on company infrastructure. So how much value does JFI add to the startups that come through its doors in Indonesia? We thought we might answer this question by looking into some of its local graduates. Some of the JFI companies are true success stories. Others are not. Here are the ones that interested us most, in no particular order.

Adtik (graduated September 2013)

Adtik was an Android cross-promotion network, founded by Alan Chang. It aimed to help local developers with a limited marketing budget implement free promotions for their apps. Chang confirms the site is no longer active, as he wanted to pursue another venture. Today, he is a resident expert at Mountain SEA Ventures, and the founder of Rehack – one of Mountain’s Ideabox startups – a self-proclaimed combination of hacker lab and idea incubator.

Aibilities (graduated February 2012)

Aibilities combines healthcare and technology to provide a communication platform for patients with movement disabilities. Aibilities was named “Best Rising Startup” at SparxUp the year prior to its graduation. Although the company hasn’t received much news coverage recently, Abilities is still up and running.

Aibilities blink-control user interface.

Babybind (graduated September 2013)

Babybind is a social journal mobile app, which helps parents document their baby’s moments digitally via smartphone. Users can also share moments with relatives or friends through social media. The app was last updated on Google Play in December 2013 and less than 1,000 downloads. The company’s blog is up, although it has not been updated since July 2013. Alexander Winata, founder of Babybind, has been unreachable.

Codemi (graduated September 2013)

Codemi is an online learning website for both students and teachers. The company provides various ecourses in a range of subjects from business to cooking, and even singing. This site is still up and co-founders Zaki Falimbany and Faisal Reza are actively looking to scale up its business this year. Earlier this month, Codemi also was named one of Ideabox’s 18 finalists for its second cohort.

Mitra Micro (graduated July 2012)

Mitra Micro is a platform that aims to make insurance available and accessible to undocumented Indonesian workers with low incomes and limited coverage. JFI grad Hendra Suryakusuma still claims to be the company’s founder, but says that Mitra Micro is “dormant” at the moment.

IndoTrading (graduated September 2013)

IndoTrading is a marketplace for business-to-business deals in Indonesia. It mainly targets SMEs that are not well-versed in online marketing. IndoTrading is a localized version of China’s ecommerce giant Alibaba. Founder Handy Chang still works there, and last we heard from him, the company secured seed funding from Rebright Partners in October 2013.

See: Financial trading startup 8 Securities ties itself to the Alibaba IPO rocket, offers free Alibaba shares to new account owners

Wujudkan (graduated July 2012)

Socentix (graduated July 2012)

Jagad (graduated September 2013)

Stilomo (graduated July 2012)