Universitas Indonesia (UI) officially opened the 2024 Innovation Product Funding Program (PPI) and UI Incubate. The opening of the program was announced in a series of UI Incubate 2023 Demoday events held on Wednesday (15/11), at FX Mall Sudirman Jakarta. During the event, the Director of Innovation and Science Techno Park UI, Ahmad Gamal, S.Ars., M.U.P, Ph.D., said that the opening of this program also marked UI’s readiness to develop startups and create innovative products that have an impact on society.
The UI Incubate Demoday was held for 2 days, namely on 14th–15th of November 2023. This activity aimed to bring together entrepreneurs with potential investors, customers, and partners. Incubation program participants gain networking opportunities to refine their business models and products. Therefore, apart from presenting Talk Show speakers who are experts in the business field, this event also invited venture capital and angel investors who have the potential to look at the products/business prototypes of UI Incubate participants.
Pitching Day activities at Demoday UI Incubate were carried out through a speed dating mechanism by bringing together startups and venture capital as a form of funding collaboration. To see the readiness of the collaborating startups, an investment board FGD was also held. There were at least 15 startups supported by DISTP UI that took part in this activity and were expected to collaborate with strategic partners, thus helping in business development.
According to Gamal, pitching to venture capital is one of three other big agendas for creating an end-to-end ecosystem. He said, “The end-to-end ecosystem is that if someone has innovation, but is unable to become an entrepreneur, someone must offer to sell their product. For this reason, we are holding an auction of inventions from UI inventor friends. Any inventor who has the capacity, product, and copyright or patent, can offer their product to startup friends or potential founders. Vice versa, if someone has a startup, but has difficulty finding a CMO, CTO, CFO, we need to build the company by creating a network with professionals who are capable of managing the company. For this reason, we facilitate it with Venture Building activities.”
Apart from the three main agendas, the 2023 UI Incubate Demoday also opened an exhibition for all startups in Indonesia who want to introduce their innovative products. More than twenty startups were recorded as taking part in this activity, including ATM Sehat, Inventing, ID-Caldera, Pharm.Ex, Yourbestie, Petpolis, Toonesia, Bengkel Kita, Adapto, Mini Container, Your3DBrain, Langing Academy, Foodiewell Nutrimind, SI-Cuhal , One Pulse, Akuwater, G&H (Garapno Herteria), Get Eat, Langing, Vit-R Nurse, Science Techno Park UGM, Science Techno Park IPB, and the UI Robotics Team (TRUI) / A.I. Center Indonesia (AICI).
Of all the startups that participated, there were three new startups fostered by DISTP UI that were launched on that occasion. They are Toonesia, ATM Sehat + Mursmedik, and Printbox 3.0. Toonesia is an end-to-end platform that operates in the creative industry in Indonesia. At this initial stage, Toonesia is targeting the digital comics market.
ATM Sehat + Mursmedik is a development of ATM Sehat which produces multifunctional remote health tools for early detection, monitoring and health promotion. People can carry out health checks, such as blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, ideal weight and height, temperature, oxygen saturation, and early detection of stunting. What differentiates this product from the previous ATM Sehat is the support from a qualified medical equipment manufacturing company and a much better distribution network nationally.
Apart from that, UI also launched Printbox 3.0 which is the latest version of Printbox. This product is a vending machine/ATM which functions as a document printer to support the needs of students. Printbox 3.0 has a new form and features.
