This New VC Has $3.5 Million to Invest, Dares Indonesian Startups to Meet Them

In-House Venture Capital is a newly-launched fund that invests in Indonesian startups. The total size of In-House’s fund is $3.5 million for its first year and an additional $8 million in the second year. The fund focuses on investing in B2B startups from as early as the idea stage until the growth stage where they are looking for enterprise-level customers or expanding overseas.

The fund was created by Marshall Tegar Utoyo and ex-Koprol founder Fajar Budiprasetyo. It has a strong line-up of board members that boasts well connected businesspeople like David Condon, ex-Groupon COO Philippines; Glen Ramersan, CEO of Media Muda Indonesia; Aditya Hadiputra, CFO of Utoyo Capital Partners; and a few other big names that will be announced later on.

With a strong line-up of partners and board members, the In-House fund’s edge lies in its ability to help startups get connected to enterprises and also for overseas expansion.

In-House VC’s co-founder Marshall shares:

Co-founder of In-House VC, Marshall Utoyo

My partners and I have a lot of connection with telcos, banks, IT enterprises, hardware manufacturing, and production companies. I want startups to leverage onto my partners and my connections. We don’t just give money, we give also our connections. Everyone (Investors, businessman) has money but not everyone has the willingness to go to the startup and say, “Hey dude, I think you got what it takes to be really big. I know some guys who will buy your stuff and I have a community who will use your products” […] The wrong thing is to put emphasis on money. We are supported by mining companies, energy companies from both Indonesia and internationally so money isn’t an issue.

Startups that are interesting to us are those who can leverage onto our connection and has a sound business model. Startups can even come to us on a basic form of ideas, or in the later stage where they are looking to expand to overseas, we are open to it. When we invest in startups, we invest in the people. Business plans can be fixed but people are hard to fix. If the founders are good people, even if they fail on current plan, we could work together to grow another business that suits to him or her.

We dare you to come meet us

Marshall has put his whole team on standby for this month at central Jakarta’s Pacific Place. In-House VC’s website isn’t live yet but startups or even investors who are keen to meet them can email Marshall, David, Glen, Aditya and Fajar to arrange for coffee directly. Hungry entrepreneurs looking for funding can have a go and understand more about them in person.

(Editing by Steven Millward and Charlie Custer)