JICA NINJA Demo Day in Jakarta Has Been Successfully Held!

Supporting Indonesian impactful start-ups, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and partnered with ANGIN, has held NINJA (Next Innovation with Japan) accelerator Demo Day in Jakarta, on Thursday, February 9th, 2023 at XenSpace, South Jakarta.

This year, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) focuses on assisting economic and social growth in Indonesia by collaborating with ANGIN on NINJA accelerator program 2022. The 3 Indonesian startups selected as NINJA 2022 Cohort are: Bell Society, CarbonEthics, and Surplus Indonesia. Ranging from pre-seed to pre-series A stage, the startups provide solutions in waste management and low carbon emission areas. For the past 3 months, these startups have been going through a curated selection process with the other 256 applicants and equipped with mentoring sessions. What differentiates this program is the Cohorts are fully supported by the  tailored mentoring sessions covering 4 topics: Business, Fundraising, Japan Business Culture, and Pitch Coaching, with the Impact consultation sessions.

Closing the program, Demo Day in Jakarta has been conducted to support the startups in showcasing their business to curated with local, regional, Japanese, and global investors. The Demo Day was held on Thursday, February 9th, 2023 at XenSpace, South Jakarta, supported by Xendit. It started with a talkshow which was inviting notable speakers: Almira Zulfikar, Founder and COO of Plépah, and Tania Lestari, Vice President at Openspace Ventures. The theme raised for this session is “Value in Impact vs Business: Capturing Business Opportunities Through Scaling Impact During Economic Downcycle”. 

“JICA believes all three start-ups have great potential to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) such as climate change and food waste, and also scaling to larger business size. We hope that today's session will lead to partnerships between start-ups and you all, which will be significant to solving social problems in Indonesia,” said Takehiro Yasui, Chief Representative of JICA  Indonesia Office, during the opening remarks. 

83 attendees actively participated, including the investors, partners, governments, Indonesian startups, and media. NINJA 2022 Cohorts have been engaged intimately with the attendees, where both parties exchanged feedback to boost the business growth, strategy, and operation, as well as exploring further collaboration opportunities. To strengthen the connection, the attendees also had the opportunity for networking and exploring business and investment opportunities at the end of the event.

“The event is very enriching! I had the insights from both investor & founder perspective about what to expect and focus on in 2023. And most importantly, it's such a valuable opportunity to meet the Japanese stakeholders in Jakarta, so I get insights on what to highlight during the Demo Day in Japan,” said Jessica Novia, Chief Impact Officer of CarbonEthics, one of NINJA 2022 Cohorts, about the Demo Day in Jakarta. 

Documentation

Feel free to see more photos here:bit.ly/JICANINJA22_DemoDayJakarta_Documentation

MEET THE NINJA 2022 COHORTS

Bell Society

Bell Society develops and produces biomaterial leather by converting coffee ground waste, as well as other organic waste. Leather is used as bags, shoes, wallet materials. Bell Society sources coffee and organic waste from cafes, restaurants and directly from coffee farmer cooperatives. Their growth plans will include the scale and global distribution in order to be the global brands and have collaboration all over the world within the next 2 years. 

CarbonEthics

CarbonEthics supports institutions and individuals on climate action through carbon calculation and carbon offset via community-based mangrove conservation. CarbonEthics plans to enter the global carbon credit market by providing verified carbon projects and expanding its ecosystem expertise from blue carbon to the wider Nature Climate Solutions.

Surplus Indonesia

Surplus Indonesia is a mobile application-based marketplace for food merchants to sell overproduced meals and food items at discounted prices, allowing food merchants to generate revenue from imperfect and near expired date (NED) products, and reduce waste management expenses, while also allowing consumers to discover good quality and edible food at affordable prices. Surplus Indonesia aims to boost their B2C and B2B strategy and expand the operations.

ABOUT NINJA ACCELERATOR PROGRAM 2022

JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) partnered with ANGIN, is excited to boost the impactful entrepreneurial ecosystem of Indonesia through NINJA (Next Innovation with Japan) accelerator program 2022. This highly selective initiative aims to support and equip impactful Indonesian start-ups to face curated investor lists, expand partnership opportunities, and achieve financial support. 

NINJA Demo Day is part of the NINJA accelerator program 2022 which aims to showcase the 3 selected startups who have received the tailored mentoring sessions.

Learn more about NINJA Accelerator Program 2022 from here.

About JICA 

JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) is a governmental agency that delivered the bulk of Official Development Assistance (ODA) under the government of Japan. It is chartered with assisting economic and social growth in developing countries, and promotion of international cooperation. 

Learn more about JICA Indonesia from here.

About ANGIN 

ANGIN is Indonesia’s first and largest tech-enabled early stage investment platform and development advisory consulting company, working to build a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem. The shareholders and team strive to support Indonesia's economic development by investing in the next generation of entrepreneurs and by bringing best in class practices to Indonesian early stage investment.

Learn more about ANGIN from here.

Press contact

This article was written  by Ignatia Kristianti, Communication Officer at ANGIN. 

Contact person: aisha@angin.id, Partner Engagement Lead of ANGIN.