Digital advertising platform Adskom announced Series A funding secured from Geniee, Convergence Ventures and East Ventures today (8/7). Previously, the platform sealed an investment from Beenos Plaza, Skystar Capital, Rebright Partners and Digital Garage.
Ever since being founded back in 2014, Adskom has managed 150 million unique user data in Indonesia as well as got integrated to 200 supply, data and demand partners. The advertising market in Indonesia, Adskom believed, would keep on steadily growing that it will reach US$19,58 billion (RP 260,7 trillion) by 2019. At that time, the budget for digital and mobile advertising will reach US$7,6 billion (Rp 101,2 trillion). This is why Adskom becomes a magnet for both clients and investors.
ASEAN expansion
Although the potential in Indonesia is huge, Adskom doesn’t want to spend 100% of its resources on Indonesia. Italo Gani, Adskom’s Founder and CEO, told DailySocial that his team would be up for international market in th enext 3-5 years.
After opening an office in Silicon Valley by the end of last year, Adskom admitted that it will employ the newly obtained funding to enter Malaysia and Thailand. These two markets are chosen because of their similiarity to Indonesian market, both from the ecosystem and market potential.
Gani admitted that entering those markets at the same time indeed is challenging but he and his team were confident that their product can be well received there after having a series of customization processes done to adjust the product with local trends. Quite similiar business culture is another factor that convinces Adskom upon entering those two countries.
Focus on mobile
Although being regarded as the leader of tech-based advertising market in Indonesia, Adskom sees competition from numerous foreign players. Some local and foreign competitors have operated well in Malaysia and Thailand. Gani feels that Adskom’s technology is much more advanced than that of local players there, giving Adskom the opportunity to enter and dominate both markets.
However, Gani admitted that their tech has yet been optimized for mobile. “Currently, our technology only supports mobile site, but has yet been integrated with mobile app,” said Daniel Armanto, Adskom’s Founder and CTO who also founded social networking platform Koprol.
Looking at the phenomena of mobile’s domination, the leader of tech-based advertising industry may now be determined from whether its technology is optimized for mobile, both through site and app, and seamlessly integrated or not. At the moment, mobile integration is one of Adskom’s focus, allowing them to leave their competitors behind.
Exit strategy
As a CEO, Gani admitted that exit strategy is one of his concerns while running Adskom. The fact that his team own more than 5 investors who always seek for good return supports this premise even more.
About the exit strategy, Gani refused to think too far. “It seems that IPO is still miles away for Indonesian startups”, said the ITB graduate. Acquisition, he said, is a more rational exit strategy for companies like Adskom, who own industry titans like Google, comScore, Rubicon Project and many others.
