The national scale competition is supported by five government ministries and agencies

Grab announced that it has partnered with five government ministries and agencies in launching Thinkubator, a startup conference and competition that the company said seeking innovation and tech talent development in Indonesia.

Coordinating Maritime Affairs Ministry, the Office of Presidential Staff [KSP], Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, the Indonesian Investment Coordinating Board [BKPM] & Agency for Creative Economy [Bekraf]) are five ministries involved in succeeding the competition.

Officiated by the Coordinating Minister of Maritime Affairs, Luhut B Pandjaitan, Thinkubator would be a public-private collaboration between Grab and Indonesian government in search of the next decacorn startup for Indonesia, said the company’s official statement.

Later on, Grab said it plans to bring this program to other Southeast Asia countries, to help grow the overall tech ecosystem in the region.

“There is so much innovation here, driven by a real passion to make a difference. With Thinkubator, we want to create an open and inclusive platform that will find and nurture the best ideas from Indonesia. A large part of Grab’s success is thanks to the many giants that support us. We have the opportunity to pay it forward and are excited to join hands with the Indonesian government on this search for Southeast Asia’s next big success story,” said Hooi Ling Tan, Co-founder of Grab.

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Thinkubator was first conceived from a conversation with the country’s Coordinating Minister of Maritime Affairs, and has become a nation-wide competition in search of the best ideas across key categories including Logistics/Transportation, Agriculture/Environment, Education, Health and others, all focussing on diversity and inclusion.

In total, Grab said it has welcomed 1,165 startups applications for the program, with 150 shortlisted candidates to join the conference today that includes workshops and networking opportunities.

From the shortlist, six top finalists will be selected from to pitch their ideas in front of a professional panel of top business leaders that includes William Tanuwijaya, Co-Founder of Tokopedia; Friderica Widyasari Dewi, Executive Director at KSEI; and Chairul Tanjung, Chairman of CT Corp.

The finalists of Thinkubator will have a chance to receive funding from a total pool valued at Rp 3 billion, including access to Microsoft Azure to grow their business. Exposures on a national television will also be an advantage of the finalists as the final will be broadcasted live on Trans TV, tomorrow, March 29, 2019 at 8 PM.

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Grab also has Grab Ventures Velocity (GVV), Grab’s flagship scale-up program for post-seed startups that would be a follow-up to Thinkubator. It will start accepting applicants for their second batch in Indonesia, offering a platform to test and commercialise their solutions with the Grab customer base.

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