New Digital Startups: Top 5

With the emergence of digital startup companies in the past 5 years, the fastest-growing industry in Indonesia has already got their new aces to step up to global level.

From art, fashion, to investment—anything can be done at the tip of our fingers now. Ranging from lifestyle to financial, here are the top 5 new digital companies of our pick; as also listed in our Digital Playground issue.

STYLE THEORY

Style Theory aims to solve the problem of people frequently splurging on new clothes, yet always complaining they have nothing to wear. That was when Raena Lim, one of the founders, figured that there was a need to “redefine the way people consume fashion, while being mindful of the environmental impact and wastage”.

Together with her long-time Indonesian friend Chris Halim, they started up Style Theory in Singapore in 2016. Aiming to fulfil every woman’s dream of having an infinite wardrobe, it is armed with technology and a revolutionary business model, where subscribers will be able to access thousands of outfits (and growing) through a monthly subscription.

MODALKU

Established in early 2016, Modalku has evolved to become the biggest Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending platform in South East Asia today. Its premise is simple but noble—connecting small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) to lenders. Modalku solves those undermet needs by bridging burgeoning entrepreneurs to potential lenders, offering clear benefits to both sides.

As of now, Modalku is the #1 P2P lending platform in Indonesia and have distributed more than Rp 1,2 trilion to the SMEs in the country. For their positive impact and contributions to the economy, Modalku has been honored with various awards, including Global SME Excellence Award 2017 by the UN; the first and only Asian startup to achieve this accolade.

SWEETESCAPE

The idea of SweetEscape sparked when Ignes Dea, SweetEscape’s PR Manager, traveled with her family to Paris. “I’m a photographer—it was ironic that I didn’t have any decent pictures during that trip” she said. This issue led her to think about how nice it is to connect with local photographers around the world who could take good pictures and provide best touring tips on how to experience the city. Through these ‘local friends’ (SweetEscape’s nickname for their local photographers), they preserved client’s memories easier through high quality, best angled pictures.

Since SweetEscape started their business as a digital platform, it helps their business thrive fast since they can offer faster service to their upscale clientele. “Our app is optimized for convenient and instinctive use. Clients can book photographer worldwide in less than two minutes and download the photos in 3 business days after the photo session is done,” she added.

CLUB ALA CARTE

Club Alacarte provides excellent alternative to both who want to spend money and invest in lifestyles. “Nowadays, consumers have various lifestyle activities, such as dining, beauty and skincare or going regularly to gym,” said Ferdinand Sutanto, the CEO and co-founder, regarding the reason why they expand the business. Offering access to hundreds of lifestyle offers in the city’s quality merchants, the company becomes an ultimate lifestyle-based application that offers lot of benefits to their members.

As a smart and modern application, Club Alacarte also helps offline business players in facing the sharp shift in online business trend. Through their exclusive offers, the applications become a great platform to persuade consumers to enjoy excellent lifestyle to the fullest while saving some for the future.

HELLO BEAUTY

Being a premium one stop beauty application, HelloBeauty helps their clients find the best beautician to make their dreams of turning into their favorite looks come true. Hundreds of professional beauty artists in this application are able to fit each client’s criteria regarding their budget, style and schedule.

HelloBeauty provides the best service through advanced technology since Dennish realized that technology had grown significantly and hold a major role in daily life. “The funny thing is you can almost buy anything online, but it’s a different case in beauty industry. Through our application, people could book beauty services from wherever,” he said. His strong determination also brings him pretty results when he got invited to represent his company on the largest female technology startup competition, She Loves Tech global conference in Beijing, China recently.

PHOTOS Courtesy of STYLE THEORY, MODALKU, SWEETESCAPE, CLUB ALACARTE, HELLO BEAUTY