ASUMSI.CO raises seed funding from East Ventures to build a tech-driven digital media platform

JAKARTA — Multi-platform digital media startup Asumsi.co announced an undisclosed amount of seed funding from East Ventures. The investment will accelerate the company’s technology product development to expand its operations beyond content creation in a mission to build a sustainable media ecosystem.

Journalist & former TV presenter Pangeran Siahaan founded Asumsi in 2017. The company is a digital media startup targeting young demographics, with a focus on current affairs and pop culture. Its fresh and unorthodox approach in covering current affairs and social issues differentiates them amongst its competitors in Indonesia, one of fastest-growing digital advertising markets in the world. To illustrate, digital media buying in the country is estimated to have grown by 26% to US$2.6 billion in 2019.

Currently, Asumsi has reached more than 10 million viewers per month through various social media platforms, including 3.2 million monthly views on YouTube. However, the company understands that content creation is only a stepping stone towards solving digital media businesses bigger problems.

Pangeran Siahaan, CEO of Asumsi commented, “Asumsi believes the key to sustainable media business is a combination of high-quality content and technology innovation. Therefore, we have done our best in creating quality contents that adhere to journalistic values to offer an alternative outside the mainstream media. However, we realize that producing better content only solves a part of the problem.”

Beyond content

Digital media companies today are also dealing with the problem of over-dependence on social media platforms to reach audiences. Meanwhile, the rise of individual content creators brings in more competition into an already overcrowded industry.

“For that reason, we need to see beyond traditional media thinking. This investment will enable us to develop technology infrastructure. The technology will give us leverage while preserving our content quality and cutting-edge approach. We will use the investment, among others, to hire more engineers and build tech infrastructure. With those additions, Asumsi will be one step closer in creating a news platform supported by advanced monitoring and analytical systems. As a result, we will understand our existing audience better and reach new ones,” added Pangeran.

Willson Cuaca, Co-founder and Managing Partner of East Ventures said, “Indonesia has many good stories that need to be told. We are looking forward to back Pangeran and his team to build the platform to tell the stories.”