Padang-based Visio Incubator already has 27 startups on board, and will open a batch in Jakarta soon
Visio Incubator team at Membangun Nagari 2017 hackathon
The lack of innovation and drive among Sumatran youth in embracing entrepreneurship in the digital era are some of the reasons that led to the founding of Visio Incubator.
Visio Incubator Co-Founder and CEO Hendriko Firman told DailySocial that the founding of the incubator programme is expected to trigger the rise of new startups in the Sumatra island, though the programme currently put their focus on startups in the West Sumatra province.
“Why West Sumatra? Because we happen to reside in the province and want to stay close to our family; we would also like to keep a close watch of the beginning of the incubator’s progress, which is not as costly as [building one] in Jakarta,” Firman said.
“Our system is basically an incubation programme; our first batch had finished their three-month incubation in Padang on July 2017. The startups that we incubate may operate their business in any place [prior to joining us].”
The early stage of West Sumatra’s startup ecosystem growth
Visio Incubator is based in the city of Padang, particularly at Kubik Workingspace. The incubator programme by far has 27 startups with 84 founders on board.
“We have done the first batch of our incubator programme, sprintcubator, hackathon, demo day, and the Startup Padang Lab,” Firman said.
He claimed that the startup ecosystem in West Sumatra has started to grow. Based on existing data, many universities have started to give special focus on informatics engineering education to young talents in the province. Apart from supporting the growth of young talents in the IT sector, in West Sumatra there are already several startup communities consisting of startup enthusiasts and angel investors.
“There are at least 10 campuses which focus on providing Bachelor’s degree programme in IT in West Sumatra. We also have the Android Padang community, Android Minang community, Neo-Telemetri community, and volunteers in the tech sectors,” Firman said.
In order to educate and share valuable knowledge to the startup founders participating in the incubator programme, Visio Incubator fosters partnerships with 10 IT professionals and experts, including Carnegie Mellon-graduate engineer Imre Nagi.
Also Read: Former Go-Jek VP launches BINAR tech academy in Jogjakarta, plans 3 branches in 2017
Expansion plan to Jakarta
After hosting several activities and first-batch incubation programme in West Sumatra, Visio Incubator has started to open application for a second batch programme in Jakarta. In addition to focussing on Sumatra-originated startups, Visio Incubator will also open the opportunity for startups from across Indonesia to join in.
“Why we didn’t start in Jakarta straight away? It is due to the A/B testing that we have conducted. Now that we have an understanding of how an incubation programme works, it’s time we move to Jakarta as it is easier to build network, meet stakeholders, and mingling with a more progressive ecosystem in the city,” Firman explained.
Despite having a decent startup ecosystem and a growing interest from local angel investors, in general, Visio Incubator saw that it is not enough in supporting the acceleration of startup ecosystem in West Sumatra. To support its operation in the province, Visio Incubator plans to appoint a Managing Director to manage and expand its operations in West Sumatra. By 2020, Visio Incubator expects to secure 500 startups in its incubator programme.
—
The article Mimpi Visio Incubator Mendukung Ekosistem Startup Sumatra Barat was written by Yenny Yusra and first appeared in DailySocial. English translation and editing by e27.
Image Credit: Visio Incubator
The post Visio Incubator on the journey to support West Sumatra’s startup ecosystem appeared first on e27.