JAKARTA, 27 April 2022 - BintanGO, a technology company that offers an all-in-one CreatorSpace, announced a US$2.1 million seed funding round to simplify how creators run their businesses. The round was led by Investible and eWTP Tech Innovation Fund with participation from Farquhar, Plug and Play, Aksara, Redbadge Pacific, Moonshot Ventures, Mulia Sky Capital and United Creative. Other notable investors in the seed round include current and former executives from YouTube, Facebook and Google.
The new funding follows the company’s $500k pre-seed round in June 2021, which was backed by Flash Ventures. Since its launch in September 2021, BintanGO has witnessed viral growth and has emerged as the industry leader in the burgeoning Indonesian creator economy. It is a SaaS-like platform that provides productivity and monetization tools as well as financial solutions for creators to help them manage and grow their businesses.
BintanGO is founded by two experienced Southeast Asia entrepreneurs. Jason Lee co-founded Indonesia’s largest coworking space, CoHive. Oktorika Mandasari is a marketing veteran with agency and talent management expertise.
“Creators are the new mSME in Indonesia. Today, Indonesian creators manage multiple income streams and are faced with challenges such as invoicing and payments from clients. In Indonesia, they are classified under the informal worker segment and hence do not have the same privileges as employees in terms of financing and credit with banking institutions. We see our role as helping them manage their finances and work by aggregating tools and solutions into a single unified platform,” says Jason Lee, Co-Founder and CEO of BintanGO.
As validation of the untapped opportunities in this new creator economy, DataReportal revealed that there were 191.4 million social media users in Indonesia in January 2022 (+12.6 percent between 2021 and 2022). Indonesia's massive digital consumption has become a fertile field for anyone to become a creator and attract a large number of followers. The fame of these micro-macro influencers has led to income opportunities such as fan engagements, brand deals and collaborations to IP creation and starting their own businesses. Influencer Marketing Hub (2022) estimates that the total valuation of the creator economy in Indonesia will reach $104 billion, equivalent to IDR1,493 trillion in 2022.
Testament to this, the BintanGO platform has organically onboarded more than 10,000 creators, with creators earning over US$150,000 in the past three months. The platform began by offering a marketplace for fans to connect with celebrities via video shoutouts and video calls. The natural viral effect of fans sharing their videos and celebrities touting their services on their social profile led to strong interest from nano and micro creators wanting to get on board the platform.
Oktorika Mandasari (Rika), Co-Founder and SVP Commercial of BintanGO has been in the creator industry (then creators were known as “Selebgrams”) for the past 10 years. “Having witnessed firsthand how the industry has evolved, there is a huge gap between what the creators need to propel themselves and what is available in the industry to help them. As a female entrepreneur representing this industry, I see an opportunity for us to leverage technology and harness the vibrant startup ecosystem in Indonesia to make a difference for our Creators.”
“We are also in talks with fintech solution providers, influencer marketing platforms and other industry verticals to see how they can add value, and at the same time benefit from integrating with us to provide a compelling and seamless experience for Creators to manage their business,” enthused Rika.
Investible Principal Khairu Rejal expressed his enthusiasm for the Australia and Southeast Asia-based early-stage investment group to be leading the funding round. “BintanGO's founding team brings a unique combination of ability and passion to change the game for creators in Southeast Asia with a revolutionary product. We're excited to support them as they push into this next phase,” he said. Investible has backed more than 100 companies in 9 countries and 20 sectors, including established creator brands such as design and publishing tool Canva and Indonesia-based startups Eden Farm and MyRobin.
“We appreciate the experience and ambition of the founders at BintanGO. The sector shows great potential for growth, driven by increased content consumption on social media amongst the young population and we believe creators will flourish in Indonesia. As one of the fastest-growing creator companies in the country, BintanGO could provide better solutions and accessibility for creators to learn and grow their business,” said Zheng Rongqing, Partner of eWTP Capital.
Charged with the mission to invest in, accelerate and help companies in key markets grow globally through technological innovation, eWTP (Electronic World Trade Platform) Capital has Alibaba Group and Ant Financial Group as its cornerstone investors when it was set up in 2018. With a total AUM of US$1.2 billion, it has investments in India, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
For further information please contact the BintanGO press office: Bilal Mahmood (he/him) via b.mahmood@stockwoodstrategy.com and +44 (0) 771 400 725.
About BintanGO
Founded by Jason Lee and Oktorika Mandasari in May 2021, BintanGO is on a mission to provide solutions powered by technology to help Content Creators simplify and manage their business seamlessly. These solutions include productivity, monetization and financial tools.
To join the community or collaborate with Indonesian Content Creators, visit www.bintango.com or download the app from the Google Play Store or Apple Store.
BintanGo is a part of our Portfolio startups in Plug and Play. As an in-house venture capital, our goal is to fund the teams that are building the defensible businesses of the future. By leveraging our capital, our network of VCs, and our corporate partners, we give our portfolio companies an added advantage. Join our platform today!
