The March 8 and 9, 2023, event at the BSD City featured discussions, live pitching, business matching, and VIP dinners with more than 20 venture capitalists, 30 private companies, and 100 startups. The event helped startups create a space for learning, collaboration, and connections between the startup industry and other industries through topics such as "Pitching techniques to convince investors" and "Sustainable financial management from investor money to profit".

Among the speakers are:

• Yanto Suryawan, Senior Vice President Ecosystem Acquisition & Partnership of Sinar Mas Land
• Bonifasius Wahyu Pudjianto, Director of Informatics Empowerment of the Ministry of Communications and Information
• Restog Krisma Kusuma, expert staff for Innovation and Creativity at the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy

Representatives of angel investors, venture capitalists, and investors also shared their stories at the event. Among them were:

• East Ventures
• Ventura
• Alta Group (ex. Fundnel)
• BRI Ventures
• Trihill Capital
• CoinWorks
• Indonesian Aspires

Digital economy is the future

The event explained how the digital economy is the future of Indonesia, where Indonesian young people will become the backbone for advancing the digital economy in Indonesia. The digital economy's development depends not only on technology but also on human capital, which is the strength of Indonesia.

"Apart from preparing digital infrastructure, digital government, but no less important digital economy," said Pudjianto.

"We have a lot of human resources in the world. We must be careful in optimizing our resources, or it will become a burden. Our country is the largest market in ASEAN. If we are not qualified, resources from other countries will enter our country. Therefore, digital talent is the main key to Indonesia's success," he added.

With a population of 280 million, there is enormous potential for Indonesia. This startup ecosystem has grown quite rapidly in recent years. Startups emerge when there are problems in society and they can solve those problems. For successful startups, the exponential growth is very fast compared to conventional businesses, said Kusuma. 

Data from the Coordinating Ministry for Economics say that there are 2,400 startups in Indonesia until November 2022. The value of the country's digital economy reached around US$ 77 billion. The ministry expects the value to reach US$ 130 billion in 2025 and will double to US$ 360 billion in 2030, kompas.com reported.

In addition to the large population, Indonesia also has abundant digital talents. Thus, startups in Indonesia must dominate the domestic market first, then go international.

"Commit together to build a startup ecosystem in Indonesia," Kusuma added.