One of the first lessons in venture capital is that investing in a technology is often less valuable than in a disruptive business model.
Indonesia has potentially recognised this with its planned initiative to use the corporate venture capital (CVC)-backed portfolio companies to improve efficiency in its state-owned enterprises (SOE), according to sources talking to Nikkei Asian Review.
State telecom company Telekomunikasi Indonesia’s CVC unit, MDI Ventures, Bank Rakyat Indonesia’s BRI Ventures and Bank Mandiri’s Mandiri Capital Indonesia – three SOEs themselves – will offer portfolio companies to other state-owned peers, Nikkei said.
As of last year, Indonesia had 114 state-owned enterprises with an estimated $560bn in assets, the magazine added, while for a handy chart of non-SOE CVC units Tech In Asia has a nice infographic here.
Last month, MDI Ventures closed its $500m fund “in a bid to bolster the digital transformation agendas of Indonesia’s SOEs at large”.
The company added: “The new fund will be used to scale the existing agenda of Telkom Group, but with a couple of mission-critical updates. First, MDI Ventures will use the fund to invest in Indonesia-focused companies. It will then seek to plug its portfolio into not just one state-owned parent company, but all SOEs in the nation.”
It is a smart strategy as the power of corporate venturing lies as much in its ability to bring customers and product development to entrepreneurs as the capital.
As many countries effectively go through a renationalisation process coming through the covid-19 crisis that has affected many businesses, such as airlines and manufacturing, allowing competitive markets and innovation to function allied to collaboration and cooperation across organisation types will be decisive in shaping economies’ future success.
It is a rare opportunity for ecosystems as a whole to take a growth rather than fixed mindset to solving common challenges and just one of the lessons to come from the GCV Asia Congress – now being held as part of the GCV Digital Forum on 29 September – and its south-east Asia roundtable.
