Sinar Mas Land partners East Ventures, others to launch smart city fund

Indonesian property developer Sinar Mas Land has teamed up with East Ventures, Redbadge Pacific and Prasetia Dwidharma to set up a fund that will invest in startups developing smart city solutions, according to a press release.

The vehicle – called Urban Gateway Fund (UGF) – will focus on investing in six areas of urban living technology: mobility and transportation, property technology, data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI), omnichannel retail, sustainable resources management, and smart city tech.

Korean construction and development player GS E&C will also be an investor and strategic partner in the fund. The fund will start to support the development of smart cities with BSD City located in Greater Jakarta. The financial terms of the fund remain undisclosed.

Sinar Mas Land has developed over 50 projects in Indonesia, including BSD City, which is its biggest smart city project.

The fund seeks to provide a test-bed platform and facilitate the integration of ideas and prototype solutions into Sinar Mas Land’s communities. UGF will allow startups to incubate and validate their solutions on an urban scale, and give them access to Sinar Mas Land’s main business.

“As we transform BSD City into an integrated smart digital city, we remain committed to creating opportunities for startups to enrich our ecosystem with their innovative ideas and solutions,” said Sinar Mas Land Group CEO, Michael Widjaja.

East Ventures, which recently raised US$ 550 million for early-stage, growth funds, has made various investments in startups focusing on smart city-related areas. Some noteworthy portfolio companies include vision AI startup Nodeflux, proptech platforms CoHive and 99.co, as well as waste management startup Waste4Change.

“When Michael Widjaja told me his vision a couple of years ago to transform BSD City into a progressive digital living space, we immediately bought in and since then have been working together to accelerate the vision,” said East Ventures Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Willson Cuaca.

BSD City will serve as a living lab to implement all innovations from the frim’s ecosystem, he added.

Sinar Mas Group has made various investments in the tech sector. Earlier this year, it made a US$ 225 million investment in digital wallet Dana.

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Original article on DealStreetAsia, May 13, 2022.