Sea turtles: Why I’m heading home to Indonesia and its bullish tech landscape

Photo credit: Kris Mikael Krister

Last year, I first heard the phrase “Sea Turtle” being applied to startup founders. In Chinese, this translates phonetically to “hǎiguī,” which is pronounced the same way as a slang term (海归) for Chinese citizens who have returned to mainland China after studying abroad for several years.

As explained in Wikipedia, the word is a pun, as hai (海) means “ocean” and gui (龟) is a homophone of gui (归) which means “to return.” Nowadays, this phrase also applies to Southeast Asians who have increasingly decided to return and start their own initiatives in their respective home countries.

I find this concept very interesting. In the past four years living in the US  ( specifically the San Francisco Bay Area),  I’ve been inundated with news from Indonesia. These usually come from prominent startup founders, VCs, and government officials, pitching a propitious landscape for building startups.

Their messages hold a common thread: Your country desperately needs you. If you come back to Indonesia, you will have our utmost support.

(You know that the Indonesian government is serious about something when the president flies 17 hours across the Pacific Ocean to meet us in person.)

President Joko Widodo’s town hall in San Francisco / Photo credit: Detak.co

I have always been passionate about applying technology to solve problems and improve people’s lives, and the possibility of starting my own startup has always persisted in my mind.

With this goal, I studied electrical engineering and computer science at Berkeley, did a few tech internships, and started a YC-backed startup. The premise of being a sea turtle became more and more promising as I kept in touch with developments in Indonesia. Allow me to describe the more notable ones in the country’s tech landscape.

State of the ecosystem

Indonesia has recently produced various success stories—from unicorns like Go-Jek, Tokopedia, and Traveloka, to small- and medium-sized startups like Sale Stock, Xendit, and Stoqo. Angel investors and VCs all over SEA are starting to flock to Indonesia in hopes of roping in the next unicorn.

According to general consensus, Indonesia is currently experiencing its golden era of growth, spearheaded by technology. Various articles and tech figures have drawn analogies between the stages of development in Indonesia and China, circa 2008.

Venture capital

In its past two batches, Y Combinator has backed three Indonesian startups: Payfazz (S17), Playing Viral (W18), and Dana Cita (W18), along with Xendit (S15) a couple of years back. In 2017 alone, investors poured US$3 billion into Indonesian startups, with 95 percent of it coming from China. It’s clear that prominent VC firms all over the world are clamoring to invest in Indonesian startups.

One note I’d like to emphasize on VCs is the creation of unique investment models in SEA, with huge vested interests in Indonesia. Firms like Intudo Ventures and Insignia Venture Partners — whom I had the privilege of meeting in San Jose — are leading a new wave of investment paradigms created to utilize strengths and tackle weaknesses in the region. While I have learned not to believe in investor-based validations of startups, all these facts signal significant venture interest in the country.

Government

Connectors

Repatriation

Challenges

The future