Local Start Up Entrepreneurs Please Be Prepared, BUMN Merah Putih Fund Wants To Inject Funds Of Up To IDR 4.3 Trillion

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JAKARTA - Start-up companies or start-ups must start beautifying themselves. The funding platform owned by the BUMN Merah Putih Fund is willing to disburse funds of up to 300 million US dollars or equivalent to Rp. 4.3 trillion (exchange rate of Rp. 14,366 per US dollar) for local start-ups to become unicorns.

This confirmation was conveyed by Deputy Minister of BUMN II Kartika Wirjoatmodjo. "The Red and White Fund funding is for local start-ups to ensure Soonicorn (soon to be a unicorn)," Kartika said at the online seminar of the Mandiri Investment Forum 2022, quoted by Antara, Wednesday, February 9.

Of course, the startup in question must continue to operate in Indonesia.

In addition, the Ministry of SOEs will support them to be listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange, and is expected to attract interest from the global investor community.

"Through this collaboration, we hope to be able to support and ensure that national start-ups receive domestic funding, as well as create an ecosystem that gives birth to many unicorn startups and even national decacorns in the future," Kartika said.

Previously, SOE Minister Erick Thohir revealed that the Merah Putih Fund would focus its funding on soonicorns or start-ups that have not yet become unicorns.

According to Erick Thohir, soonicorn has a lot of potential, but if funding is not also assisted, then the startup will no longer have potential.

The Merah Putih Fund is an initiative from the Ministry of SOEs to support the acceleration of local startups that have the potential to become unicorns, through business and capital collaboration. In addition, it also builds potential synergies for digital solutions in various sectors.

The Merah Putih Fund will be managed by five state-owned corporate venture capitalists and raise US$300 million for the first phase of a number of state-owned enterprises.