The Covid-19 pandemic has pushed Universitas Indonesia (UI) to continue to be creative in creating an entrepreneurial university that supports university independence to develop research that is useful for the wider community. The UI Investment & Start Up Forum 2022 aims to realize research collaborations as well as in the field of community service with domestic and foreign institutional investors. This activity also accommodates the need for downstream product innovations. The hope is to help the country become the center of start-up development at the Southeast Asian level.
The Rector of Universitas Indonesia (UI) Prof. Ari Kuncoro S.E, M.A, Ph.D, said the Covid-19 pandemic situation and the dynamics happening in the world encouraged UI to become an Entrepreneurial University in order to support the independence of the university to develop research that is beneficial to the wider community. “This series of events is also to bring together several interests from researchers, research institutions within the UI, and start-ups in the public, as well as from the investor side. We hope that the capital vendors will help young people to invest in start-ups in order to help start-ups to be creative and manage start-ups to grow,” he said. The UI Rector hopes that the innovations produced by UI can be used as start-ups or get the right investors and this forum can support the growth of start-ups in Indonesia.
The Minister of Health of the Republic of Indonesia, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, attended an online presentation regarding reforms in the Indonesian health system. There are 6 pillars of transformation to support Indonesia’s health, the first is the transformation of primary services such as Community Health Centers, the second is the transformation of referral services such as the construction of hospitals in Eastern Indonesia, the third is the transformation of the health resilience system in the pharmaceutical and medical device sector, and the fourth is the transformation of the health financing system.
The fifth and sixth transformations are health human resources and health technology transformation. Budi gave an example of a platform in a health facility such as the Community Health Center which has more than 400 applications. “Therefore, the plan is to make it into one single platform to make it easier for health workers. The platform presents data on medical conditions in an area, what has been done, how many people have been identified, and more. Congratulations to UI, this activity is a leap frog to build a technology-based health industry,” said Budi.
In addition to the Chancellor and the Minister of Health, also present at the opening of the event, the President Director of BPJS Kesehatan, Prof. dr. Ali Ghufron Mukti, M.Sc., Ph.D, AAK., Aries Indanarto as Expert Staff for Priority Investment Sector Development, Indonesian Ministry of Investment, UI Vice Rector for Human Resources and Assets, Prof. Dr. Ir. Dedi Priadi, DEA., UI Cooperation Director, Dr. Toto Pranoto, S.E., M.M. In order to listen and understand the startup and venture capital ecosystem, at the climax of the 2022 Investment & Start Up Forum, a discussion was held in the first session with the theme “Appetite Discussion” which presented three speakers including Daewoong Korea CEO Jeon Seung Ho, Managing Partner of Kejora Ventura Eri Rekso, and CEO of BRI Ventures, Nicko Widjaja. This discussion was held on Thursday (14/04).
As a company in the health sector, Daewoong wants to make Indonesia a center for biotechnology by promoting regenerative biologic drugs. Jeon Seung Ho said, Daewoong contributed to the development of health services in Indonesia by providing the best treatment solutions in the field of regenerative medicine based on advanced biological technology and being globally competitive through the promotion of digital health services.
“Daewoong wants to develop Indonesia as a research, development and production center for Daewoong Group which will become a biopharmaceutical center with global competitiveness. For this purpose, we established a biopharmaceutical research institute at the Universitas Indonesia in 2018 and planned to establish a bio-analysis center in 2020,” said Jeon.
On the same occasion, Managing Partner of Kejora Ventura Eri Rekso said, “As an investor, of course you want to see that the funds invested in these start-ups will produce good returns in the future. For this reason, it is necessary to understand the monitoring of this investment. After monitoring, it must also be ensured that the investment will double in value or have value creation, which is the main goal of investors.”
He added, founders must understand the importance of implementing good governance because value creation can only be achieved if the company manages to have good credibility in the eyes of investors.
Furthermore, Eri provides several examples of forms of governance that must be emphasized. First, it must be ensured that there is no conflict of interest, so that any business decisions made must be based on commercial considerations. Second, as Co-Founders, they must have a responsibility to shareholders who have invested their funds. Third, the Protocol of Corporate Actions, namely that every corporate action must pass the correct procedure. Fourth, Business Process and the last is Establishment of Supervisory.
Meanwhile, BRI Ventures CEO Niko Widjaja explained about BRI Ventures and the mechanism for developing start-ups. He said, BRI Ventures was established to accelerate innovation by investing in high-growth companies that empower a strong digital ecosystem and ultimately drive the digital economy in Indonesia.
In addition, he conveyed that one of the considerations for investors is the fundamental aspect. “What investors see, of course, are the founders, whether he is able to navigate the obstacles that exist. This is the most important and even more important than the business model. Because the business model we have is an assumption that needs to be validated with the market,” said Niko .
