Every month, the team at e27 runs the Startup of the Month poll where we pick promising startups to give the extra coverage and attention that it deserves.
We are excited to announce Indonesia’s Soul Parking as the winner for Startup of the Month for June.
The unaddressed problem
Sometimes, the most innovative ideas come out of the frustration of founders who had to deal with the problem themselves. In the case of Soul Parking, that problem involves motorcycle parking in a country with a heavy traffic congestion problem.
As known by many, Indonesia is one of the most rapid-growing economies which also has the maximum land area, compared to its Southeast Asian counterparts. But major cities in the country have long been suffering from congestion problems due to its growing density, along with an increase of vehicles in the country.
About 82 per cent of the total vehicle in the region consist of motorcycles. The growth of motorcycle ownership has increased by about six per cent, in comparison to the growth of additional roads which is only 0.1 per cent per year.
This creates an imbalance and a situation where motorcycles significantly outgrowth the availability of roads.
There has also been a trend of mindless use of public space for parking which has further contributed towards the issue. The founders believe that this is a consequence of Indonesia’s narrow roads which has come from smaller cities to bigger cities.
Soul Parking CBO Andru Wijaya describes to e27 how the situation is like on the ground.
“Motorcycles are parked illegally everywhere. They are parked on the road, on the side of the road … They even use the bridge. That’s the consequence of having a small area of roads in Indonesia. Then it goes around to the big roads as well … it costs big time and adds to congestions,” says Wijaya.
“As Indonesian citizens, we want to make a change. We want to provide solutions that can have an impact on society,” he continues.
Behind the team
Soul Parking consists of brothers Kemas Ilham Akbar (CEO) and Kemas Riza Aulya (COO), who are joined by former high school friends Andru Wijaya (CBO) and Bahagia Waluyo (CPO).
The idea for the startup came early last year when the four were casually discussing some of the business prospects in Indonesia related to traffic jams.
Before that, the brothers were working in the parking industry for around 10 years while Wijaya and Waluyo were business partners for a construction business.
“We simply came with the solutions that we believed was going to be good at tackling Indonesia’s traffic and parking problems. From that point on, we engaged more and spoke more in details. That’s basically how we started the company,” says Wijaya.
The Compact Motorcycle System
To tackle the challenges, Soul Parking builds a Compact Motorcycle System (CMS) which has been patented by the company.
As pictured above, the compact system allows motorcycle drivers to easily park their vehicles vertically, in an organised way. As of end-February, the company has opened its first location in Jakarta at Kebon Kacang area, right across Plaza Indonesia and Hotel Keraton. They intend to continue growing it.
The happy users have even expressed their satisfaction with the product on Instagram, raving the comfort that they receive and also the protection for their motorcycles from bad weather.
Some of the extra features of the CMS is added security which includes insurance coverage and CCTV installation.
In June, the startup announced an undisclosed seed funding round from co-led by AC Ventures and Agaeti Ventures, with the participation of strategic angel investors.
With the fresh funding, Soul Parking aims to build 10 CMSes this year. It also plans to develop a mobile app that includes features such as parking discovery, booking, and payments.
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Image Credit: Soul Parking, Fikri Rasyid
The post Meet the startup that is innovating its way out of Indonesia’s traffic congestion appeared first on e27.