East Ventures launches fourth initiative of Indonesia PASTI BISA

East Ventures has launched the fourth initiative of Indonesia PASTI BISA, namely Maju Terus Pantang Mundur (Keep Moving Forward, Never Give Up) or IDPB MTPM.

It is a collaborative project led by East Ventures in response to the current rampant employee layoffs, especially in the tech ecosystem. IDPB MTPM is the continuation of IDPB, a collaborative movement spearheaded by East Ventures since 2020 to support communities during the crisis in Indonesia. It has also supported over 250 tech companies across Southeast Asia.

Indonesia PASTI BISA Maju Terus Pantang Mundur provides an opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs to develop their business ideas and take their first step in creating a startup. Through the designed program, the impacted talents can realize their business ideas, receive direct coaching from experts in the digital ecosystem across multiple areas, connect with investors, and receive a total funding of approximately IDR 7.5 billion in the form of uncapped convertible notes for 30 teams, with supports from partners such as IDN Media, Tech in Asia, Katadata.

The open application period runs until 30 November 2022 and the announcement for the shortlisted team is on 1 December 2022. East Ventures will announce up to 120 shortlisted teams. The coaching and hackathon are from 2 to 12 December 2022. The shortlisted team will start 10 days of coaching and one day of the hackathon with East Ventures and experts.

Demo day will be held from 13 to 14 December 2022 when the teams will present their MVP in front of the judges. The 30 winning teams will then be announced on 14 December 2022. The announcement will be made through IDPB MTPM and East Ventures' official websites and social media channels.

“Thousands of talents within the tech ecosystem were laid off. We believe that the impacted talents have great potential, yet they are just at an unfortunate time and condition. To keep them unleashing their potential, East Ventures wants to create a platform to support those individuals impacted through Indonesia PASTI BISA Maju Terus Pantang Mundur,” said Willson Cuaca, co-founder and managing partner at East Ventures.

Cuaca added, “We believe in the importance of collaboration among all players in the ecosystem to go through the hard times, as we always do.”

“Indonesia PASTI BISA Maju Terus Pantang Mundur serves as a platform to connect bright talents and aspiring entrepreneurs in receiving the right guidance so that they can realize their entrepreneurial dream. We encourage all impacted talents to apply to this coaching and hackathon program,” said Avina Sugiarto, partner at East Ventures.

“We are looking forward to partnering with any organizations to support this initiative. We hope to see many great talents and potential ideas to solve pain points in Indonesia. We are looking forward to moving together in reviving and developing the digital ecosystem and taking steps toward achieving an inclusive and sustainable future,” Sugiarto added.

In September, East Ventures was getting pretty active on another platform as well. It invested in a new platform, Playground, dedicated to Web3 gaming and NFT discovery. The pre-seed funding round was completed and co-led by East Ventures and Mirana Ventures, with participation from other notable institutions and angels such as Arc Capital (a global private crypto fund, affiliated with Pintu), James Z (founder of Jambo), Adam Levinson, Murali Abburi (Graticule Asset Management, a leading global hedge fund), and Benjamin Zhu (Azure Tide, a digital asset specialist firm), as well as senior executives from leading blockchain technology companies.

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