Indonesia-based accelerator Upturn has officially debuted its programme in May this year. Claiming positive milestones during its launch, Upturn Co-Founder and Partner Riswanto plans to deepen further his involvement in the startup ecosystem with a new investment vehicle.

In addition to Riswanto, Upturn counted Ayunda Afifah and Bharat Ongso as co-founders. Since April, the organisation has rebranded from its previous identity Tunnelerate, operating under new entity PT Upturn Akselerasi while halting the operations under the Tunnelrate identity. It is also important to note Upturn is operating as an accelerator programme instead of a venture capital (VC) firm.

In this interview with DailySocial, Riswanto reveals more details about the accelerator programme, its hypothesis and investment plan. He also reveals that the organisation is currently looking for a Managing Partner that can represent Upturn in the long run.

Accelerator programme

Instead of focusing on the reason behind the rebrand, Riswanto chose to highlight Upturn’s effort to accelerate the Indonesian startup industry. With its positioning, an accelerator programme is a suitable platform to connect founders to mentors and investors in Upturn’s networks.

As a visualisation, digital economy in Indonesia has reached US$70 billion in 2021 –a number that is also the biggest in Southeast Asia– and is expected to grow further beyond US$146 billion in 2025.

Upturn has launched its Upturn Scale Program Batch I in May 2022. It has selected 14 out of 200 applicants to participate in a 10-week programme with 15 VC being involved in the Demo Day. Through the demo day event, the programme intended to encourage its participants to prepare a pitch deck that will attract investment into its businesses.

The 14 participants are: Jaramba, Flash Campus, Broiler X, Wiseree, Cari Mobil, Bengkel Mania, Bintang Kecil, Goritax, Kibble, Psikologimu, Rakamin Academy, Sgara, Stellar X, and Belajar Lagi.

“We receive support from Sinar Mas Land and other traditional companies looking to do digital transformation. Through this programme, we help startups in doing their problem validation,” he said.

Thesis investment

Upturn sees itself as a sector-agnostic platform, but its co-founders have core expertise in several verticals. These verticals are still considered hot commodity in Indonesia: agriculture, aquaculture, and fintech.

Upturn Partners also have a combined background of having worked in both startups and traditional businesses. This provides an advantage in the matters of business fundamentals and unit economics. “We don’t want to invest because we fear missing out. In fact, many of the participants in Batch are already profitable on their own. For example, Belajar Lagi,” said Riswanto.

Riswanto is previously known as angel investor in agritech startup Eratani. He and Bharat Ongso has years long experience in the IT and fintech sectors. Meanwhile, Afifah has strong experience in people and culture.

“According to our thesis, in times of crisis, people are going back to basics. People need food, infrastructure for logistics, and working capital through fintech platforms. This is why Upturn offers value in product development [based on career experience] and network,” he added.

The firm is certain that there are still many potential founders with businesses that are operating healthily in Indonesia, but they may not have the necessary know-how in VC fundraising. Instead of focusing on trends, Upturn focuses on looking for startups with products that are needed by the customers, building a sustainable business.

“Not every shiny founder [with strong education background from top universities] can create a successful business. On the other hand, there are “non-shiny” founders who can build a successful business.”

Investment vehicle

Riswanto stresses that the organisation wants to play a role in the digital industry through two different platforms. This is why, following its debut, Upturn plans to set up a new entity that serves as its investment vehicle. It will also begin the second batch of its accelerator programme next year.

So far, there has been positive feedbacks for the accelerator programme. “We receive plenty of exposure so there are already offers for collaboration> This is a positive signal as it means there are many more who are vertical-focuses,” said Riswanto.

“We believe that startups that have undergone this programme may look for follow-on funding. In the first batch, we have connected several startups to investors, and some of them have closed a funding,” he said.

In the next months, Upturn will explore a business model that would suit its vision and mission. They are considering investments through partnership model with VCs or digital companies such as Grab Velocity Ventures (Grab) or Sembrani Wira (BRI Ventures).

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The article was written by Corry Anestia in Bahasa Indonesia for DailySocial. English translation and editing by e27.

Image Credit: Upturn

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