Editors’ Picks: Indonesia’s Most Impactful Startups

Impact investing can be a powerful instrument of change.

— Judith Rodin (Philanthropist and former President of Rockefeller Foundation).

Creating a startup is not only about making wealth and being famous, nationwide and globally. It’s also to make impacts on society. Indonesia, an archipelago with 270+ million of population and most are working in maritime and agriculture industry, can use some help from tech startups to ignite these changes. A change for farmers, fishermen, grassroots communities, MSMEs, and people in need for a better quality of healthcare and education.

In alphabetical order, here are our picks (handpicked by our own editors) for Indonesia’s most impactful startups to date.

Amartha (Kristin, Randi)

Amartha has been uniquely positioned to use Grameen Bank’s playbook to empower women by disbursing productive loans with technological touch. In the patriarchal society we live in, where most households are supported by only men of the family, this innovation would spread an awareness that women, too, have an opportunity to contribute more to the economy. Not only about the loan, its small group setup taught about business, financial literacy, and digital literacy. Several global social impact institutions have validated the effectiveness of their business model and become strategic partners.

Aruna (Amir, Yenny)

Indonesia claims to be a maritime industry, yet the industry hasn’t changed to support local fishermen. With one of the co-founders being a fisherman’s daughter, Aruna builds a platform that consolidates all aspects of the industrial fisheries, from aggregators of supply and purchase, financing, and reducing the price gap, while increasing the living standards for underserved fishermen. It has acquired 20,000+ fishermen to date and has begun to partner with MSMEs in the fishery business.

eFishery (Corry, Yenny)

eFishery has revolutionized the aquaculture sector through IoT-based feeder solutions, disrupting the traditional way of feeding fish and shrimp in Indonesia. It is listed as the largest feed distributor and fish supplier in Indonesia without operating any single fishpond. eFishery continues to scale up its innovation by providing an end-to-end ecosystem through the marketplace and BNPL/paylater services. It aims to build an aquaculture ecosystem in Indonesia that is not only profitable, but also sustainable to the farmers, buyers, and all stakeholders.

Halodoc (Marsya, Randi)

Halodoc succeeds in democratizing access to comprehensive health facilities. The platform enables many people, especially from tier-2 and tier-3 cities, to access a broad network of doctors and pharmacies in Indonesia with a touch of mobile services. No more wasting hours to queue at the hospital. With healthcare digitization still in the nascent stage, accelerated with the pandemic, Halodoc is on course to be the go-to platform for all healthcare needs.

Kitabisa (Randi, Marsya)

It’s no doubt that Kitabisa has set a gold standard of social crowdfunding, by turning donations into a digital lifestyle, making people more responsive to social problems. Its friendly UI/UX has been copied by many similar services. The power of technology, storytelling, and a strong community has made Kitabisa the top-of-mind donation platform in Indonesia, trusted by millions of users every month. The platform perfectly identified the pain points the community had faced with the donation program: trust, convenience, and flexibility.

Klinik Pintar (Corry, Kristin)

Accessible infrastructure continues to be the highlight of healthcare democratization towards grassroots communities. While Halodoc provides access to doctors and pharmacies, Klinik Pintar provides physical clinic chains as the first mile for healthcare access. According to data, there are almost 9000 clinics and almost 10,000 Puskesmas nationwide, compared to less than 3000 hospitals. The platform aims to help clinics owners to make healthcare services widely accessible for people with the help of technology.

Mitra Bukalapak (Randi, Marsya)

We believe Mitra Bukalapak will become the core and essential part of Bukalapak’s business, not just a type of diversification like others’ approach. Hence why it’s now the country leader of the O2O industry. It bridges between non-tech-savvy societies and the technology industry. The platform is about how a digital application enables micro-entrepreneurs to create added value for their customers. It’s also hopeful to provide a fair supply chain system for micro-entrepreneurs.

Tanihub (Yenny, Amir)

TaniHub is a one-stop digital service for agricultural products that aims to connect farmers with various types of businesses and end-users. While it’s not the only platform in the area, it’s successfully able to connect the long supply chain between farmers and customers by providing access to capital to the farmers, undercutting the distribution, and establishing a more sustainable environment in the industry. Recently it launches a foundation as a vehicle that provides long-term solutions for the welfare of farmers.

Wahyoo (Corry, Kristin)

Small and medium enterprises represent one of the major engines of economic growth in Indonesia. Jakarta alone is home to thousands of small food stalls or locally known as “warung”. Founded by Peter Shearer, Wahyoo, through its innovation, intends to help transform the conventional working system of “warung”. It directs its vision on cost efficiency and increasing the profits of “warung” owners through simplification of the supply chain process.

Zenius (Marsya, Kristin)

Co-Founded by Sabda PS as one of the edtech pioneers in Indonesia, Zenius shows what an edtech company should be. The platform tries to revolutionize our basic education concept. Rather than just “memorizing”, the old method that has been practiced nationwide for years, it pushes the new idea with an understand-the-concept approach.  Moreover, it’s not only focused on students but also helping teachers catch up with digitalization.