East Ventures announced the 30 team champions from the Coaching and Hackathon Program of Indonesia PASTI BISA Maju Terus Pantang Mundur

East Ventures, a pioneering sector-agnostic venture capital firm that has supported over 250 tech companies across Southeast Asia, has announced the 30 selected team champions from the coaching and hackathon program of Indonesia PASTI BISA, Maju Terus Pantang Mundur (Keep Moving Forward, Never Give Up) or IDPB MTPM. The champion teams receive a total funding of IDR 7.5 billion (around US$ 500,000) in the form of uncapped convertible notes, including the benefits and perks from the program’s prominent partners. 

As the fourth initiative of Indonesia PASTI BISA, IDPB MTPM is the program led by East Ventures with hand-in-hand collaboration and support from East Ventures’ strong ecosystem and partners as the response to the current rampant employee layoffs in the tech ecosystem. Indonesia PASTI BISA itself is a collaborative movement spearheaded by East Ventures since 2020 to support communities during the crisis in Indonesia. IDPB MTPM consists of two main highlights, (1) the coaching and hackathon program and (2) the job board. In the same belief of the importance of speed and agility during a crisis, IDPB MTPM was launched 36 hours after the ideation.

The coaching and hackathon program aimed to support the impacted talents who want to build their entrepreneurial journey or who want to be aspiring entrepreneurs. The program has completed all subsequent activities, from the open application to the demo day. With a total of 270 submissions, which includes 551 people from 50 cities. The 120 shortlisted teams had gone through 11 days of coaching and hackathon (in both online and offline format) with East Ventures and experts in the industry, including:

The selected teams presented their business ideas and MVPs to the judges on 13 and 14 December. The judges were Avina Sugiarto, Partner at East Ventures, Melisa Irene, Partner at East Ventures, Abraham Hidayat, Managing Partner of Skystar Capital, Andreas Dymasius, Principal of Skystar Capital, and Edoardo Prawira Judokusumo, Principal of Sinar Mas Digital Ventures (SMDV). 

The 30 team champions selected are Aksata, AYANGKU, Barengan, BotaNize, Cios, Disanitasi, Dole, Fellas, Foodtrition, God Army, Hello, HomHub, IJO, Kommodity, Meramu, Middleboard, MIG, Montiro, Mutual, Qelas.id, Repax, Sak Kula, SAMA ERP, Sampai Pinter, SOCIO STARTUP INDONESIA, Solopreneurs AI, STEVOR, Sweetlift, Tryvel (Berpijar), and Tulisno.

“Our team members, including myself, are employees affected by the layoff. We feel that this activity is remarkable, and of course, we have never imagined becoming the champion team for the Indonesia PASTI BISA Maju Terus Pantang Mundur. Each session of this activity was very insightful, and we were guided to keep rethinking and looking for more appropriate forms for our business ideas. Thank you to East Ventures and the coaches who have been involved in this program,” said Anky Andikara, Tryvel (Berpijar), one of the team champions of this program, an ex-employee at a payment gateway company.

“Indonesia PASTI Bisa Maju Terus Pantang Mundur is proven to be a fast and practical initiative in supporting the impacted talents in the tech ecosystem amidst the hard times. IDPB MTPM has become a platform for aspiring entrepreneurs to develop their business ideas and MVPs, meet directly with expert coaches and connect with like-minded participants as they kick-start their entrepreneurial journey. We are heartened and pleased to work with over 27 partners, 35 coaches, and judges who volunteer their valuable times and efforts to support the program. Congratulations to all participants and the team champions. We have met many aspiring entrepreneurs with great potential, and we look forward to seeing developments and excitement from the team champions,” said Avina Sugiarto, Partner at East Ventures.

As one of the coaches and moderators of the IDPB MTPM Program, Abraham Hidayat, Managing Partner of Skystar Capital, also shared his views, “I hope this program will create a lot of positive impacts, so that many will be inspired to use the less fortunate situation to rise and create something new, hopefully, get lots of ideas and be inspired to keep going despite of difficulties. I hope that digital talent can continue to develop and improve so that Indonesian digital talents will become one of the best in the world.”

Chief Digital Tech Ecosystem & Development – Sinar Mas Land, Irawan Harahap expressed, “We appreciate how East Ventures captures the opportunity to grow amidst the crisis and we are proud to participate. The digital sector is now a part of Sinar Mas Land’s growth as we continue to develop our tech ecosystem. We hope all team champions can make a great impact and we are also excited to welcome them at the Digital Hub, BSD City.”

“Today, all players in the digital ecosystem share the same challenges. We believe that the collaboration initiated by Indonesia PASTI BISA serves as solutions for talents in facing this difficult time,” said Luat Sihombing, Coordinator for Business Matchmaking at the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Indonesia.

Indonesia PASTI Bisa Maju Terus Pantang Mundur is supported by many partners, including Sinar Mas Land, Digital Hub, Sinar Mas Digital Ventures (SMDV), IDN Media, Katadata, Tech in Asia, ISMAYA, Triputra Agro Persada, Desty, Stockbit, Bibit, Fore, Biteship, DailySocial, Harian Kompas, Google, MySkill, Xendit, Hub.id, AWS, Alibaba Cloud, Moengage, Aman, Buzzy, WebEngage Startup Program, Hacktiv8, Impactto.io, and many others. 

As a pioneering and leading sector-agnostic venture capital firm, East Ventures has established a robust digital ecosystem in Indonesia and Southeast Asia. Since its inception, creating intentional impacts has been part of East Ventures’ DNA, which is not only merely created through investments but also through the creation of immediate initiatives in the critical time. 

IDPB MTPM job board remains active for talent seeking job opportunities in the East Ventures’ ecosystem. They can navigate over 700 job openings through the IDPB website Indonesia PASTI BISA Maju Terus Pantang Mundur.