• Grab Ventures Velocity Batch 2 has selected 10 startups within two program tracks: Empowering Farmers and Empowering Small Businesses, with 7 startups coming from Indonesia, 2 from Singapore and 1 from Malaysia
• Through GVV, Grab will nurture startups that empower micro-entrepreneurs, to further cements its ongoing commitment to the Government of Indonesia to play a leading role towards growing agritech ecosystem not only in Indonesia but all of Southeast Asia.
• Grab has also partnered with Sinar Mas Land to support Batch 2 of Grab Ventures Velocity.

Jakarta, 17 June 2019 – After evaluating more than 150 startups across Southeast Asia, Grab today announced the second batch of startups participating in Grab Ventures Velocity (GVV). GVV is Grab’s flagship scale-up program for post-seed startups.

The theme for GVV Batch 2 is Empowering Micro-Entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia, with 10 startups selected from across the region. Seven startups come from Indonesia (Eragano, PergiUmroh, Porter, Sayurbox, Tanihub, Tamasia, and Qoala), two are from Singapore (Treedots and GLife), and one hails from Malaysia (MyCash Online). This theme further cements Grab’s ongoing commitment to the Government of Indonesia to play a leading role towards growing agritech ecosystem not only in indonesia but all of Southeast Asia.

Rudiantara, Minister of Communications and Informatics, Republic of Indonesia said, “Indonesia and Southeast Asia has become one of the best areas to grow digital startups. Its growth rate is extremely fast, even higher than more developed countries in the world. This is an amazing situation, and a motivation for the government as a digital facilitator and accelerator to continue to develop the supporting ecosystem.  As such, I highly appreciate the continued initiatives by Grab via the Grab Ventures Velocity (GVV) program. I am confident that together we can grow as stronger Southeast Asia as a home and ecosystem for the many amazing startups. In addition, via this GVV program I hope that Indonesian startups will be able to compete at a global level and bring recognition of Indonesia overseas.”

Ministry of Finance, Republic of Indonesia through Dr. Sudarto, SE, MBA, PhD, Special Staff to the Minister of Finance on Organization, Bureaucracy and Information Technology, also supports the Grab Ventures Velocity program and aims to further strengthen Indonesia’s digital economy. “Digital economy is believed to drive Indonesian economy growth in the future. We support Grab’s initiative as the platform to grow young digital talents especially in agriculture and SMEs sector.”

“As the leading everyday super app in Southeast Asia, Grab believes in leveraging technology to create positive societal and economic impact. Through Grab Ventures Velocity, we strive to empower millions of startups and micro-entrepreneurs to build a stronger Southeast Asia. In the first batch, we supported several startups in Indonesia and  provided them mentorship to achieve their  business goals. We are humbled to become the first Decacorn in Southeast Asia and this time we would like to give back and share what we have learned to also contribute to Indonesia’s betterment,” says Ridzki Kramadibrata, President of Grab Indonesia.

Grab has also partnered with Sinar Mas Land to support Batch 2 of Grab Ventures Velocity through the company’s strategic assets and their BSD City will be a venue for GVV events.  BSD Smart Digital City is developed to be a digital talent pool and a conducive digital economy area.

Irawan Harahap, Project Leader of Digital Hub Sinar Mas Land said, “Sinar Mas Land appreciates the implementation of Grab Venture Velocity (GVV) to empower startups and develop small businesses in the country. This agenda coincides with our effort to develop BSD City as a digital economy area, especially the Digital Hub. We also hope that the best from GVV will also be able to join the other tech companies and digital startups that have been developing in the Digital Hub.”

BSD City has developed specific digital facilities and infrastructures to provide a better life for its residents. The city has begun its journey to be the pioneer of an integrated smart digital city by developing the Digital Hub project that is designed as a digital ecosystem in Indonesia. The 25 Ha digital area is dedicated as the “Silicon Valley” of Indonesia to cater the daily needs of digital and IT companies.

GVV Batch 2 has two program tracks:

• Empower Farmers (Track 1). Grab selected 5 startups that are disrupting the traditional fresh food supply chain to increase farmer’s welfare. This is not only important in agricultural countries, such as Indonesia but also in countries like Singapore to bring high quality and low cost produce to restaurant businesses and users . For this track, Grab is partnering with startups that optimize the supply chain to help farmers increase their income. GVV startups also utilize technology and data analytics to help farmers to have better data and predictability on what fresh goods to produce, which is a key concern for all farmers.
• Empower Small Businesses (Track 2). Grab selected 5 startups that are pioneering innovative solutions for small merchants by increasing their income. Small businesses such as warungs (Indonesian traditional mini-stores) state that their top priorities are more sales & lower costs. There are nearly 10 million small businesses in Indonesia that have gone online to further expand their businesses. Thus, for this track, GVV has selected startups who will help further expand the income and livelihoods for these 10 million small businesses, and more importantly, digitize the remaining 46 million micro, small and medium enterprises across Indonesia.

GVV Batch 2 startups will pilot their solutions in the Grab ecosystem. Compared to Batch 1 pilots, which were integrated onto the Grab mobile app, Batch 2 pilots will take place across multiple channels. Depending on their service offering, Batch 2 startups will pilot on the Grab mobile app, GrabFood merchant base, or Kudo’s agent network.

Through Kudo’s extensive agent network which spans across more than 500 cities throughout Indonesia, Kudo will give an opportunity for selected startups to implement their ideas and business innovations to empowering warungs and enable them to be at the forefront of technology advancement. This initiative is in line with Kudo’s #MajuinWarung commitment to support warungs to be more well rounded by providing a better range of services and offerings.

The GVV program will run for 16 weeks, after which all 10 startups will pitch to Grab. Successful startups will get the opportunity to collaborate with Grab through an investment or commercial partnership.