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Indonesia's new wealth fund keen to invest in digital economy
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Indonesia Investment Authority (INA) has expressed interest in investing in unicorns, or start-ups valued at more than US$1 billion.
(Shutterstock.com/fatmawati achmad zaenuri)
I
ndonesia Investment Authority (INA), a recently founded sovereign wealth fund, has expressed interest in start-ups in an apparent move to capitalize on rapid growth in the tech industry.
INA chief executive officer Ridha Wirakusumah said investment in the digital economy would broaden INA’s portfolio beyond infrastructure. Utilizing technology and digital development could produce great opportunities, he said, while referring to the success of China’s quantum leap.
“We also are looking into the adjacent digital infrastructure, whether digital services or digital platforms, potentially even investing in some of the unicorns that have proven business models,” Ridha said at a webinar held by the Indonesia Banking Development Institute (LPPI) on June 10.
Unicorns are start-ups valued at more than US$1 billion.
Read also: Start-up digest: Which Indonesian firms have IPO plans?
According to Google and Temasek, Indonesia’s digital economy has huge potential and is likely to grow by 23 percent over a five-year period to US$124 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) by 2025. That would put Indonesia ahead of Thailand ($53 billion) and Vietnam ($52 billion) as the largest digital economy in Southeast Asia.
In Ridha’s presentation the digital economy was defined as covering e-commerce, food delivery, travel and transportation services, online media and financial technology (fintech).
