On the second day of Echelon X at Singapore Expo, May 16, BRI Ventures CEO Nicko Widjaja discussed the concept of Great Reset, which he elaborated on in his recent book Chasing Unicorns: In Search of Fool’s Gold (Gramedia, 2023).

“I took that line [about the Great Reset] from the World Economic Forum in 2021. And it is happening in our industry right now, where the space is not expanding, but rather contracting,” he said.

“If we look at the amount of money coming to Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia, it was contracting down to almost 50 per cent in 2023. It means that, as a region, we are not producing enough excitement anymore. It is no longer ‘alive’ like back in 2010.”

He further explains that while entrepreneurs continue to emerge from the market, trying to build the next big thing, investors are still avoiding uncertainties.

“In markets such as Southeast Asia, liquidity is becoming increasingly expensive. When money becomes more expensive, many investors can look for other exciting spaces with more yield. So, I guess we peaked in 2021 when Indonesia produced at least 11 unicorns. Meanwhile, 2022 was about a sanity check: Are some of these companies worth the punch?”

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How will this impact Indonesia in the long run?

“Startups will keep coming out; the government is also giving more incentives to entrepreneurs, incubators, accelerators, and grants. But without the inflow of capital from venture capital firms from the US, China, and Singapore, I do not think it will go as big as the past 10 years,” he answered.

“Most of these companies will eventually try to save as much money as possible, which will compensate for their growth. So, we won’t see the next Traveloka with enormous growth over a short period. Instead, we are looking at a slower-paced type of startup.”

Widjaja is also cautious about the idea that the startup ecosystem is returning to the “traditional” way of doing business. “It is almost impossible to imagine the VC industry going into that idea fully.”

Big in Indonesia

As the market went halfway through 2024, Widjaja shared notable trends that he observed in Indonesia. He saw that consumer-facing verticals would remain popular in the country, followed by the rising popularity of verticals such as Web3.

“Especially since BlackRock announced [the debut of its tokenised fund in March this year], I guess it will finally happen, especially with regulators deciding to focus on running sandbox initiatives,” he said. “I know some of the companies we work with already have Web3 initiatives in place.”

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Responding to an audience question about the chance for B2B or B2C companies to thrive in Indonesia, Widjaja further stressed the strength of B2C companies in the Indonesian market. He pointed out that Indonesia’s unicorns are mostly B2C companies and that there is only a limited number of wildly successful B2B companies in the country.

For him, Mekari, being the result of a merger and acquisition between several different SaaS startups, was a great example, but they are the exception and not the rule.

Ultimately, Widjaja reminded the audience that success will not happen instantly, and bringing back the Indonesian tech startup ecosystem to its former glory will take time and patience.

“I recently learned that it takes 10 years for a durian tree to bear fruit; that is why it is called the king of fruits. Success is not going to happen instantly,” he said. “This is only the first cycle of the Indonesian startup ecosystem’s history; the US has gone through five to six cycles already.”

Widjaja leads BRI Ventures, a Bank Rakyat Indonesia venture arm (BBRI), the country’s largest bank focusing on micro and small-medium businesses. His career in the startup ecosystem, venture capital, and corporate transformation spans over 10 years.

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