Sambal Bakar Indonesia Achieves Initial Funding Total 1 Million US Dollars, Ready For Expansion Throughout Indonesia

Sambal Bakar received funding of 1 million US dollars. (Didi Kurniawan / VOI)

JAKARTA - The culinary business in the country continues to attract investors to invest because of its prospective investment. Most recently, PT Sambal Bakar Indonesia, the manager of the Sambal Bakar Indonesia brand, won initial funding or pre-seeded funding worth US$1 million or equivalent to Rp15 billion.

Sambal Bakar Indonesia is a restaurant that was present thanks to the request of TikTok followers from a celebrity named Benjamin Master Adhisurya or commonly called Iben Ma, the owner. This restaurant business was only opened in July 2022 and currently, more than 118,000 people have participated in its Instagram account.

This typical Indonesian restaurant is also considered the first unique restaurant to receive initial funding of US$1 million from private investment investors. This pre-seed funding is usually interpreted as the initial funding stage for startups.

Iben Ma said this funding would be used to expand product development, services, and customer bases. These funds will also be allocated for the development of quality human resources and increased competitiveness in the market.

A short-term strategy, he said, would be carried out by expanding services and developing business in a structured and massive manner in the Jabodetabek area by opening 8 outlets this year and 30 outlets next year. In the long term, the company will present new, unique, attractive, and authentic products to customers.

"We will also present packaged products that can be found in minimarkets throughout Indonesia so that consumers can more easily enjoy products from the Sambal Bakar brand and business expansion throughout Indonesia and abroad", said Iben Ma, in Jakarta, Saturday, October 29.

Prior to receiving this initial funding, he explained that so far the company relied on bootstrapping or expansion strategies by utilizing capital from one party, both founders and owners (owners) to open the first product and service.

Although the products presented are sometimes underestimated because the company only sells Indonesian specialties, in fact the products presented are indeed a culture that cannot be separated from the Indonesian people, namely sambal and its distinctive side dishes.

Different from others, our sambal has its own uniqueness by burning, besides that the Sambal Bakar Brand was born from the concept desired by the public with the hashtag #IbenBikinRestoran which has been watched more than 80 million times on the tiktok account. This makes brands have 2-way communication with consumers or in other words always listen to consumers. This concept is rarely applied by a brand, even a brand market leader. Every day we serve approximately 1,200 visitors and more than 10,000 kilograms of chilies that have been processed," he explained.

According to him, grilled sambal has its own charm because of its varied menu and very friendly price in the bag. The uniqueness of this grilled sambal is that visitors can immediately enjoy dishes on top of the codek that were previously burned in the stove. Sambal is also selling various kinds of side dishes, not only chicken, there are also gurame fish, squid, burning ribs, lungs, skin, intestines, kikil, and many more.

Iben Ma explained that the company will divide the two targets, namely short-term and long-term. The short-term goal, the period under 3 years, is the target to open 150 outlets throughout Indonesia. The long-term goal, above 10 years, is to target 500 outlets in Indonesia and the Southeast Asia region.

We will implement an operational system like a fast food global brand to improve product services and standardization throughout our restaurants. We believe Indonesian food can compete globally and with global brands in the country and become a market leader among these global brands," said Iben.

He even hopes that later this Indonesian culinary company will be able to sell its shares to the public through an initial public offering (IPO) mechanism on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX).

"As an Indonesian company that brings original cultural values, through products and services, being an open company through an IPO is a common dream, so that people can contribute to local works so that we can compete and become a market leader with foreign brands that are present in the market," said the man who has Tiktok followers reaching 9.2 million.

However, Iben also explained the challenges in the culinary business. Currently, the culinary market share is still dominated by many global brands in the Indonesian market. However, since the last 3 years, many Indonesian brands have emerged with quality and quantity that can compete in the market.

One of them is the Sambal Bakar Indonesia brand which also contributes to the development of this country's culinary. The culinary sector is a sector that has a fairly high resilience compared to other sectors, especially during the pandemic and after the pandemic," he said.

Therefore, he said, in the future, global challenges such as rising foodstuffs are the biggest challenges that will be faced by the industry.

"But as an agricultural country, Indonesia has strong food security and does not depend on other countries, this is an advantage and an advantage for us," he said.

For information, the idea of the Sambal Bakar Indonesia Restaurant originated from Instagram followers @sambalbakar and the Tiktok @sambal.bakar account. At the opening of the first restaurant in Pasar Lama, Tangerang, some time ago, around 3,000 people were visited and Tiktokers were famous including Dims The Meat Guy, Ibnu Wardani, Lita, Timboi, Mike, Sumatra, Samuel Christ, Babe Cabita, Medy Renaldy and many more.