Get to know Batik Parang and how its philosophy resonates with East Ventures’ values

Indonesia is widely known for its Batik — an art and textile-making technique. Hundreds of kinds of Batik originating from various regions and districts in Indonesia carry the beauty in its art, its deep meaning, and philosophy.

Batik has been a part of the Indonesian heritage since the 5th century. This technique has been used to depict the entire human life cycle — birth, marriage, and death — since then. Every 2 October, Indonesia commemorates National Batik Day. On this day, UNESCO officially recognized Batik as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2009, just around the same time as the birth of East Ventures.

In commemoration of Batik Day, we want to share the story of East Ventures’ corporate Batik motif: Batik Parang.

Batik Parang, which originated from Solo, Central Java, is one of Indonesia’s oldest Batik motifs. Kings, leaders, and knights wore Batik Parang during the keraton Mataram Kartasura era, back in the 1600s. The word ‘Parang’ arose from ‘Pereng,’ which also means slope. A perengan portrays a line that descends diagonally, and this straight, diagonal line symbolizes respect and high hopes, firm beliefs, and integrity.

Batik Parang also has an S-shaped motif that intertwines endlessly, symbolizing continuity and stability in terms of continuously bettering oneself, fighting for prosperity, and even keeping familial relations. The ‘S’ itself is derived from the unstoppable ocean waves depicting a spirit that will never die. These dynamics in Batik Parang are seen as agility, vigilance, and continuity between one thing to another.

We believe that the philosophy behind Batik Parang is in tune with East Ventures’ characteristics and values, such as the continuous ambition to improve, agility, and perseverance amid our ecosystem.

Seeing how Indonesia has a very vibrant ecosystem for startup development that offers a promising market, talent, and growth, East Ventures aims to constantly support technology startups and companies to keep strengthening the nation’s digital ecosystem.

As an early believer in Indonesia’s tech scene, we are beyond proud to see the tenacity of our portfolios, which have risen into giant companies. Their growth and perseverance in the past years have earned them unicorn status. To date, we have fostered four unicorns within our ecosystem: the merger of Tokopedia and Gojek, namely GoTo, Indonesian online travel agency giant Traveloka, B2B payment gateway Xendit, and Singaporean automotive marketplace Carro; and more to come.

Like the rest of the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted our ecosystem. Despite that, we saw tremendous growth within our family and how their agility has helped them weather the pandemic crisis. One of the examples from our own stories is Traveloka, how they managed to bounce back from almost hitting 0 revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Likewise, Sociolla also worked to act timely in addressing the crisis–and instead took this opportunity to open more than 30 new offline stores locally and nine offline stores in Vietnam last year.

The unyielding spirit of the people at East Ventures is highlighted in Batik Parang’s ocean wave, accentuated by the color blue, which also represents our corporate color. It reflects the hopes and missions we aim to achieve in advancing the digital ecosystem. We were robust with exceptional milestones along our journey, and we are excited about what the future will come for us.