TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Google and Temasek announced the result of its latest research on Southeast Asia’s digital startup companies.

The two business giants calculated the investment value that was generated by Southeast Asia’s digital startups that amounted to an astonishing US$12 billion or Rp163 trillion throughout 2016 up to 2017’s third quarterly.

From that total amount, 34 percent or US$4.08 billion was absorbed by Indonesian startups. “As predicted, the Southeast Asian region, especially Indonesia is actually very attractive for investors in the digital industry,” said Google Indonesia Spokesman Jason Tedjasukmana on Sunday, December 17.

The research that was entitled “e-Economy SEA Spotlight 2017” also predicted that the investment flow towards Indonesian startups will be even higher in 2018. The research suggested that most investments bear the Unicorn status, which is the term to describe a company that is valued above one billion US dollars or (Rp13.5 trillion).

Indonesia’s four unicorns are Go-Jek, Traveloka, Tokopedia, and Bukapalak.

Tech in Asia Indonesia editor in chief Pradipta Nugrahanto said that there are some challenges faced by local startup companies to prevent them falling behind foreign startups. “There are two things, it is profit and scaling,” he said.

Pradipta was referring to a case involving live video streaming startup Zeemi, which despite having been injected with funds up to one billion US dollars, the company was still forced to pivot due to its lack of development.

FERY FIRMANSYAH | ANDI IBNU | JENNY WIRAHADI