DOOgether raises seed funding round from Erick Thohir, an Indonesian media mogul who also owns Inter Milan and Philadelphia 76ers

As the fitness industry in Indonesia experiences an accelerating growth rate, with revenues projected to increase to US$290 million by 2018, both local and international startups are tapping into existing opportunities by offering digital solutions to improve user experience.

DOOgether is one the startups that are working in the sector by providing a mobile app that allows sports and fitness enthusiasts to find and book sports venues and classes.

In the market, the startup is competing with the likes of GuavaPass, but they are confident on what they got to offer to the market.

“As a user [of GuavaPass] you have to pay IDR1 million (US$75) to be their member and get access to the information … What DOOgether offer is the free platform for user to get the access and information of sport venue, therefore our users don’t need to pay anything to be our member. DOOgether give a freedom to when and where they want to do sport with no string attached, just book as you like at your convenient time and places,” explains CEO and co-founder M. Fauzan Gani in an email to e27.

Apart from being a platform for sports players to find and book venues, DOOgether also offers an ecosystem consisting of the DOOgether mobile app, its social media presence, sports and fitness influencers, social media-based quizzes, and offline events such as DOOday.

DOOday is an event where DOOgether users participate in a sporting or fitness session at a unique location (such as a helipad on top of a hotel building), with opportunities to take part in a photo shoot, enjoy brunch, and meet like-minded people.

Hosting offline events is a crucial user acquisition strategy for the startup.

“It’s quite important in early stage for us to held an offline event, with the aim to build and increase trust in online booking for sports, promote our venue, build community, and give new experiences of sport to our user,” Gani explains.

DOOgether also implements gamification to reward users for their achievements.

By May 2017, the platform claimed to have secured 52 merchants, more than 500 classes for different kinds of sports (from basketball to zumba to martial arts), and 2,191 sports enthusiasts (with more than 50 per cent of users being women).

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The game begins

Like many other startups, DOOgether co-founders went through a period when they had to get back to the drawing board and reconsider their moves.

Their story began when Gani and COO Helmy Ikhsan returned to Indonesia from their study in University of Queensland, Australia.

They were hanging out at Gani’s house one day when their conversation turned into the difficulties of arranging a futsal game with their friends; matching their busy schedule is already a problem of its own, then there are also issues with finding and booking the right venue.

The two friends then decided to create a platform for sports players to meet-up and pitched their idea to CPO Danke Alamien, who had been working in the startup community for several years.

By February 2017, the team already had a prototype, but several challenges remain.

“Two of the biggest problems was that the market was not ready yet for that kind of solution, and we had no revenue. Since I’m a Bachelor of Economics, this is a huge problem for me,” Gani explains.

“With our money already spent for server and other technical expenses, at the end of February I created a new business model and the new DOOgether as we know now: A platform for user to get an access of information (location, photos, schedule, facilities, package/membership) to all kind of sports in Indonesia. On top of that, users can book classes of sport venue and buy their package/membership through our platform,” he continues.

The team them hired CTO Andry Luthfi and built the new system from scratch.

Also Read: For India, it is time to stop complaining and start playing Olympic sports

Teamwork makes the dreamwork

DOOgether is currently run by a team of nine (including the four co-founders) from its headquarter in South Jakarta.

In December 2016, after a period of bootstrapping it raised an undisclosed seed funding round from Erick Thohir through angel investment network Angel-eQ Network, which was founded by Shinta Dhanuwardoyo.

Dhanuwardoyo is widely known as a veteran in the Indonesian digital industry; in the early days of the industry, she founded web design company Bubu.com, followed digital industry festival ID Byte and venture capital firm Nusantara Ventures.

Thohir is the founder and chairman of Indonesian media giant Mahaka Group. He also owns several leading football and basketball clubs in Indonesia and abroad, with portfolio that ranges from Persib Bandung to Inter Milan, from Satria Muda to Philadeplhia 76ers.

Both Dhanuwardoyo and Thohir are acting as advisors to DOOgether.

“… He gives a ton of advice in running business in sport industry… On top of that, the reason he believes and invests in DOOgether [is] because we have the same goal, as our vision is to connect sport industry in one place. And with Pak Erick, together we aim to take and push sport industry in Indonesia to another level,” Gani speaks of the investment.

“[While Dhanuwardoyo] helps us by mentoring DOOgether to be a more successful startup, and giving tons of insights and advise to exploring and tackle startup world, as we all know Bu Shinta is one of the pioneers and first movers in startup [communities] in Indonesia with massive experience,” he continues.

Gani also reveals that the company is planning to raise a new funding round this year.

Apart from the new fundraising, for 2017 DOOgether also plans to expand the variety of sports and venues available in its platform; it is also looking forward to expand to other Indonesian cities.

“We plan to give new and more exciting experience of using DOOgether for our user, which I can’t disclose now,” Gani hints.

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