Founded in 2014, Stellar Kapital has invested in 12 Indonesia-based tech startups and companies of other industries

You may have seen the name Stellar Kapital participating in several funding round announcements for Indonesian startups recently, including a US$4 million Series A funding round for accommodation-sharing platform Travelio today.

Established in 2014, having been moving under the radar for years, the South Jakarta-based venture capital firm is finally ready to speak to the press about its US$25 million second fund.

Having taken at least 12 Indonesian startups as its portfolio, Stellar Kapital is looking to invest between US$200,000 to US$1 million for startups at seed and series A stages.

“We intend to use the funds to make investments in both equity and loan (to P2P lending companies), plus a fast growing real sector portfolio, therefore our portfolio will not exceed 15 companies,” Stellar Kapital Co-Founder and Chairman Aditya Keo Santoso explains in an email to e27.

“We are also very careful in identifying which entrepreneurs to support, because if we’re in, we are in to actively support them all the way,” he adds.

Stellar Kapital’s portfolio companies include tech startups such as short-term loans provider UangTeman, online phone and bill pay company Sepulsa, wedding financier Dananikah, car e-marketplace Rajamobil, Q&A platform Tado, sales conversion tool Pomona, and O2O sales and marketing company JPx.

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The firm also invests in offline businesses such as coworking space chain Freeware Spaces, oil and gas company Divestekno, coconut briquette manufacturing company Platinum, and parking management firm Stellar Parking.

It began its investment journey in 2014 with a US$10 million first fund which the firm had invested in more real-sector companies.

“We have also made several investments outside the fund I,” Santoso adds.

Investment philosophy –and a music festival

 

In addition to Santoso, who is a serial entrepreneur with family ties in renewable energy, Stellar Kapital is run by partners with background from various industries such as Rendy Soedarjo (former Vice President of Ciptadana Capital with a background in investment banking), William Muliawan (a lawyer with a long track record in Indonesia’s tax and legal consulting space), and Nigel Khoo (former partner at Saratoga Capital and former CEO of Maybank Private Equity).

The firm says that it differs from the traditional VC model by providing “attractive guaranteed annual dividend, high impact returns, and accelerated liquidity” as its objective.

“Stellar Kapital has a unique flexibility in its mandate. It can invest in companies ranging from those with strong steady
income, but slower growth, to those with low initial income but with promise of high growth. Stellar is also able to structure its investments into these companies to best suit the needs of the founders,” Santoso says.

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Stressing on the importance of combined efforts between investors and portfolio companies as its investment philosophy, Stellar Kapital offers a “key clue” for startups to gain their attention: Come up with a strategy that showcases how their business can easily provide and receive ancillary value to and from the rest of its portfolio.

The firm is also looking for startups that can bring “great product and value” to third- and fourth-tier cities throughout
Indonesia.

It gives the example of its portfolio company JPx, a partner of local media giant Jawa Pos Group, which has strong foothold in Tier 3 and 4 cities in the archipelago. Among the different services that it offers, the platform enables newspaper boys to serve as a bridge for tech adoption and financial inclusion.

For the year 2018, in addition to growing its portfolio, Stellar Kapital is also set to run its new project this month: a culture and music festival. Called Stellar Fest, the event will differ itself from the rest by involving a variety of tech companies in Indonesia.

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Image Credit: Stellar Kapital

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