The last 10 years have passed like a sweet dream for Southeast Asia’s tech ecosystem. During this time, the region went from an emerging Asian backwater to IPO market potential. Indonesia’s VCs and startups enjoyed a streak of undisrupted fundraising success, leading to the rise of some of the region’s largest funds and tech unicorns.
But since US private and public markets corrected last year, Indonesia’s tech ecosystem has struggled to come to terms with the changed landscape. Cash is now king. Investors prefer profitability over “growth at all costs”, and the lofty valuations spurred by the COVID supernormal are now seen as abnormal by today’s projections.