His resignation came about six months after Tiket.com was being acquired by Blibli
Natali Ardianto, co-founder and CTO of Indonesian online travel agency Tiket.com, announced on Friday that he is leaving the company.
His resignation came about six months after the company was acquired by Djarum-backed e-commerce platform Blibli for an undisclosed sum.
In a Medium post, Ardianto explained the reasons for his exit from the company.
“A lot of changes has been done for Tiket.com, internally and externally [following the acquisition]. We hired a lot of great talents, beefing up the managerial level, and the quality of the people is just astounding. I have reached a level where I can delegate all tasks to my managers, and I can finally fire myself,” he wrote.
He also explained the co-founders’ decision to sell the company to Blibli.
“… Our competitor is gaining traction, and is starting to go far ahead of us. We can raise fund and have a minority of our stake diluted, but what would happen is that we don’t think the money that we raise will be enough to give us a fighting chance. Thus, through acquisition, the company that acquired us can give their full and best effort to compete with our competitor in term of resources and also financial support,” he wrote, dubbing the acquisition as a “win-win” for both parties.
Also Read: Tiket.com reportedly in acquisition talks with GDP Venture
In addition to founding Tiket.com, Ardianto has also founded Urbanesia and Golfnesia. He initiated startup community #StartupLokal and has written a book on business strategy In the Mind of Natali Ardianto.
Following his resignation, Ardianto plans to focus on angel investing. With his wife Nuniek Tirta Sari, he has invested in seven different companies.
He is also planning to learn more about machine learning, having registered to an executive education programme on UC Berkeley.
“Hundreds of resolutions came up to my mind. One of them is to sleep well. For almost six years, I sleep at 3AM everyday,” he wrote of his plans.
The travel-tech sector has been a highly competitive sector in the Indonesian tech scene last year. Apart from several high-profile funding rounds (that has given unicorn status to companies such as Traveloka), the year also marked the end for startups such as Tripvisto.
Following the acquisition of Tiket.com, Blibli also acquired its sister company Indonesia Flight.
e27 is reaching out to Blibli to find out more details about Ardianto’s replacement.
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