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s the Indonesian start-up scene moves full steam ahead with the enthusiasm of its relatively young players, venture capitals are calling on promising start-ups to embrace the future and new trends.

Trends dominating the Indonesian start-up scene mainly revolve around e-commerce and financial technology (fintech) industries. Due to the many start-ups going into those two areas, there is risk of market oversaturation and stagnant growth, venture capitals say.

Andi S. Boediman, co-founder of local venture capital Ideosource, says that while the Indonesian e-commerce and fintech industries are still promising for newcomers, he said opportunities in other sectors should be considered as well.

Particular trends he noted for 2018 were the internet of things (IoT) and data analytics sectors, which were expected to be supported by more corporate investment.

“For budding start-ups, I would suggest creating something that supports the entire industry. Don’t just be a player, especially in the crowded sectors, because it will be difficult for you to compete,” he said on Wednesday at the Tech in Asia Jakarta conference.

Ideosource houses 22 start-ups in its portfolio, the most notable being long-running e-commerce platform Bhinneka.com, which Andi describes as the most scalable to commence an initial public offering (IPO).

In terms of the IoT market in Indonesia, it is still relatively unseen, but it is estimated to have a potential market value of US$1 billion by 2020, according to multinational conglomerate General Electric’s (GE) estimate.

One sector the IoT industry is able to assist in developing is the industrial sector, where sensors in machines can be developed to enhance data collection and analysis for humans.

This opportunity was raised by GE digital leader for Indonesia Wayah Suroto, who is reaching out to IoT-based start-ups to help enhance data collection for its industrial devices such as energy turbines and hospital equipment.

“GE feels that enhancement of IoT in Indonesia will help improve our services in the power, transport, energy and healthcare industry. But to make it the next big thing, we have to collaborate with related start-ups to determine where we must improve,” he said at the conference.

The challenges for IoT industry start-ups, Wayah added, would be in monetizing services, as products that were merely “devices” and did not offer any solutions would not sell well.

“Wearables, for example, are solutions. The challenge here also lies in the ability of data analytics. It is about extracting the insight of the data, not just collecting it. That, I feel is the essence of IoT,” he said.

To further its plan for “industrial internet”, GE has begun to collaborate with local IoT start-ups, such as Dattabot, to try and see IoT related solutions within the agriculture sector.

With the right moves, the Indonesian IoT sector would be able to have a valuation of $1 billion by 2020, GE estimates.