[Weekly Updates] Nusantics Receives Seed Funding; Mekari Introduces Attendance by Talenta; and More

Nusantics, a biotech startup, has received seed funding from East Ventures to help accelerate the business. Some headlines from last week are Mekari introduces a mobile app to manage employee attendance (Attendance by Talenta), Indodax is yet to decide whether to IPO (or not), how Covid-19 has "incidentally" helped to push digital transformation for traditional businesses, while student loan providers share their story on helping people achieving their dreams.

Nusantics Biotech Startup Secures Seed Funding from East Ventures

A startup in the genomic tech sector, Nusantics, announced seed funding from East Ventures at undisclosed value. The fresh money is to be channeled to accelerate the company’s mission in leading the genome industry in Indonesia.

The startup was founded last year by Sharlini Eriza Putri (CEO), Vincent Kurniawan (COO), and Revata Utama (CTO). The three hold various backgrounds in academics, in the manufacture, FMCG, clean energy, aerospace, and biotechnology.

As a tech-based startup, Nusantics focused on the development of the implementation of various genome and microbiome research to fulfill a sustainable and healthy lifestyle demand.

Introducing Attendance Application to Support Work From Home System

In supporting the work from home (WFH) system as recommended by the government to avoid the Corona Virus outbreak, Talenta by Mekari has launched the mobile app to manage employee attendance in a practical and simple way named Attendance by Talenta.

Attendance by Talenta introduced with aims to be the practical and transparent attendance management solution for business owners and employees. It was designed to be more flexible for companies without such term as to involve the whole company, there can be just 1 team to use it for employee management and monitoring, the most-mobile division, for example, the sales team.

Indodax: IPO Plan and Crypto Asset Dynamics Amidst the COVID-19 Outbreak

After acquiring a license from Bappebti, there are certain aims for Indodax as a crypto asset platform. One is to make an IPO. Based on the previous interview, the company has a plan for it.

Regarding the exact timeline of IPO, Indodax’s CEO, Oscar Darmawan avoids revealing further to DailySocial on this matter.

This year, Indodax targets to reach more than 2 million members and make the registered ones more active in transactions, therefore, Indonesia can be one of the strategic countries in the field of blockchain and crypto assets in the world. The company also wants to introduce the Indodax platform as a digital investment platform for the people of Indonesia. These objectives are in line with the government’s mission to improve digital financial literacy.

The Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic, Digital Transformation Becoming More Real

On Wednesday (3/18), Head of Shopping Center Tenant Association (Hippindo), Budihardjo Iduansjah said to the media that the shopping center’s daily revenue has been declined as the #DiRumahSaja or #SocialDistancing movement was announced to avoid the outbreak of Covid-19. Solution is needed because the trade sector is the second biggest contributor to the Indonesian economy.

A digital approach can certainly provide solutions to these problems, but there must be a business will to do the transformation. As mentioned, many perceive digital transformation as the jargon of mere technology brand campaigns. Moreover, transformation can be interpreted as an effort to accelerate business by involving technological tools. The process is not by replacing all manual business models to digital, but trying to see opportunities that can help certain business processes with digital.

The most essential part of the transformation effort is to correct the mindset of the businessman himself. In addition, the “catastrophic” moment of the Covid-19 pandemic has now become an important lesson. That digital transformation today is becoming a necessity.

The Story of Educational Loan Providers in Indonesia

There are many problems in Indonesia related to education. It is not only about curriculum and effective learning, but also access to education itself. The required capital or costs to get knowledge from courses or higher education is not cheap. For some people, it is quite burdensome.

Another alternative that could be an option is an education loan platform. The concept is like a loan service for capital funds, the difference is that the funds lent must be earmarked for education. Indeed, with different agreements and responsibilities on each lending platform. Some startups that have loaning products or services for education funds include Pintek, KoinPintar from KoinWorks, and DanaDidik.

Education that is covered by educational loan platforms is not only limited to formal education such as tertiary institutions or vocational schools but also courses in various fields, such as programming, data science, business, to language courses.