Ooredoo and PT Indosat have launched the second cycle of homegrown startup accelerator Ideabox, continuing their work to power Indonesia’s startup ecosystem.
Ideabox invited 18 finalists to a rigorous 48-hour boot camp in Jakarta. These were selected from a pool of 300 applicants, triple those received for the first cycle. Up to six winning startups will be placed in Ideabox Batch #2, starting in November this year.
This follows a successful graduation for the first batch, which saw all participants secure strong commercial contracts, and two startups attract funding from foreign investors within a couple of months of graduating.
“In addition to Ideabox, which focuses on seed stage companies, we have also established a venture capital fund to invest in growth stage companies in Indonesia and plan to launch a crowdsourcing platform very soon,” said Alexander Rusli, CEO of Indosat.
Nasser Marafih, group CEO of Ooredoo said the accelerator program has received applications from neighbouring countries like Malaysia as well as places further afield such as the United States.
The Ideabox accelerator offers an intensive four-month program which provides mentoring, seed funding, facilities, a structured curriculum and access to an extensive network of local and international startup founders and advisors.
Following graduation the startups continue to receive support from Indosat and Ooredoo, including commercial partnerships, co-location, payment integration and mobile advertising support.
To attract startups to its second batch, the Ideabox ran roadshows and seminars on building million-dollar companies in seven major Indonesian cities attracting hundreds of participants from local startups and developer communities.
Participants from Ideabox batch #1 — Ngomik, Shoop, Dealoka and Unyu — also accompanied the roadshows to share their experiences with budding startups