Jakarta Ventures Night 2011: East Ventures Invests on TeknoUp and NightSpade

Jakarta Ventures Night 2011 was held on Friday evening, March 18, 2011, at Hyatt Hotel, Jakarta. Daily Social readers must’ve known about this because previously there were Jakarta Ventures Night 2010 and Bandung Ventures Night 2010. (Articles in Indonesian Language on the events can be found here and here).

Other than presentations from 9 startups and other news, like Tasterous which added two technology rockstar in their Board of Directors, there also one announcement from East Ventures regarding two additional startups who join and become new portfolio for East Ventures (EV). They are TeknoUp and NightSpade.

TeknoUp is a website that provides the latest news on technology and gadget review in Indonesia. From her presentation on Jakarta Ventures Night, Citra of TeknoUp explained that TeknoUp is not only news but also provide analyses of various latest technology information, focusing on it in Bahasa Indonesia and advertisement friendly. For brand owners, TeknoUp also provide campaign for them, not only simple advertising.

The website’s one of top points is probably reviewing section that not only provides explanations in text but it also provides product’s original photos and also hands-on video of gadgets they are reviewing. You can read TeknoUp review in DailySocial’s article here (in Indonesian Language).

Another startup funded by East Ventures is NightSpade. NightSpade is a studio from Bandung that developed interactive application for mobile devices, desktop, or web. Some of their products are games, interactive websites, and interactive news reader. They also developed various application for iPhone, iPad and later on PlayBook.

On Jakarta Ventures Night presentation, Dody of NightSpade also presented one of their applications called Don Gravity (a puzzle maze game with accelerometer) playable on iPad. This game, Dody said, has been downloaded over 50.000 times in two weeks. NightSpade is also preparing 2 more games to be launched soon.

Frankly East Ventures’s funding over TeknoUp is quite a surprise for me, one of the reasons is that TeknoUp is a different EV’s portfolio than other EV’s portfolios like Urbanesia, Tokopedia, Apps Foundry, Disdus, PriceArea, Trendiest (previously known as Scraplr) and the latest one NightSpade. Other startups are focusing on application or internet/web service, while TeknoUp is a website focusing on providing content (text base).

But after a brief conversation with Willson from EV, one of the reasons for the funding is founder. EV saw that TeknoUp founders are worth the investment and they are good at what they are doing. Other reason is that TeknoUp itself is a startup with bright prospect. Looking at explanation in one of DailySocial’s articles previously on TeknoUp plans, investment on TeknoUp might be integrated with other startups in EV big family, at least they can support each other. Such as Disdus with its gadget category and PriceArea with its gadget information.

As for NightSpade, I asked Inaz Inas Lutfhi (one of NightSpade co-founder) whether will they be joining Apps Foundry, which also develop applications for mobile device? Inaz Inas Lutfhi said that NightSpade will run the usual way, and funding is not acquisition, although there is money involved there but EV will focus on giving guidance just like on other EV’s startups.

Introduction period between EV and NightSpade didn’t take long, about 2 weeks and finally they agreed on the deal. Investment over NightSpade would be able to add up EV’s portfolio’s market share in mobile area. Wilson’s experience will also be a very useful guidance for NightSpade. Apps Foundry itself owns several successful (user adaptation wise) products, and now game segment can be developed more and new games and new products from NightSpade will be borned.

As for funding amount, as usual, each startup refuses to disclose the investment amount, at least that was the answer I got from NightSpade. So, let see what kind of development will happen from East Ventures new family members, from their service, produk development, or latest application. And will there be more new portfolio coming from East Ventures since this Jakarta Ventures Night? Most likely so, I think I spot some startups that might interest EV. So let see whether there will be new investment news from EV in the near future.

Translated by Nita Sellya.