Indonesia president names Ruangguru, Amartha founders as special staff

Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has named 12 of his new presidential special staffers, which included founders of two local startups.

Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo / Photo credit: Global Panorama

Ruangguru founder and managing director Belva Devara and Amartha founder Andi Taufan Garuda Putra were named as two of the president’s 14 special staffers for the 2019-2024 term, according to a Tempo report.

Late last month, Gojek founder and former CEO Nadiem Makarim was appointed as Minister of Education and Culture.

With his latest appointments, Jokowi hopes to make a bigger impact on the country’s youth. He has been publicly vocal about including the younger generation in his new presidency, notably those from the entrepreneurship and tech sectors.

The president also mentioned that the special staffers will be his discussion partners. “They will provide me with innovative ideas, sparking out of the box ideas that will help us achieve progress,” he said.

Along with Iman Usman, Devara co-founded Ruangguru in 2013 to offer an online education platform and tutoring marketplace for Indonesian students. The startup also develops software for educational institutions to help them better manage workflows and lets government agencies access data and insights on schools through a dashboard.

Amartha is a fintech firm established in 2010. It changed its business model to peer-to-peer lending in 2016 to allow individuals – and not just banks – to become investors on its platform. It raised series A money in early 2017 in a round led by Mandiri Capital Indonesia. Lynx Asia Partners, Beenext, and Midplaza Holding also participated in the round.