The Vice President for Cloud Managed Service in TelkomSigma, Sandhy Widyasthana, shared his knowledge about data-driven decision-making and the context and content of his thesis on Tuesday (14/06/2022). Sandhy Widyasthana has many areas of expertise; one of them is finance, such as advanced financial management, international finance, and fintech.
His first experience in data-driven decision-making started in 2015 when he proposed his thesis on Indonesia’s customer sensitivity. His thesis is entitled ‘Indonesian Customer Sensitivity Model for Mobile Services’. He also has other finance experience, such as venture capital.
His interest in venture capital started when he noticed that people were using fewer Telkom products. Telkom consumers began to move to digital products, such as WhatsApp. Hence, it inspired Telkom to create a digital product that could compete with those startups or borrow their capability by investing in startup companies. The plan is to bring startup capability to Telkom Group.
The creation of MDI Ventures derives from Telkom’s realization that startups need capital (money) to fund their business. Funds cannot come from banks because borrowing from the bank because startups lack assets that could become collateral. Hence, it is challenging for startups to convince banks. Likewise, banks find it difficult too to fund startups.
“Venture capital exists because banks demand startups to fund their business using equity funding. So, the appearance of venture capital started because a startup needs financing, and venture capital can have ownership,” said Shandy.
This is advantageous for startups because they do not have to return the fund. Venture capital also sees this as a benefit because it increases the company’s revenue and valuation. For venture capital companies like MDI Venture, the value gained from the investment is the most important. Venture capital duties are mentoring, alliances, and facilitating exits. Now, some venture capital has become corporate venture capital.
At the end of his sharing session, Sandhy said he has invested in more than 70 companies in 12 countries. His research found that the model he used, the Agent-based model, has proven to work. His model is a program based on startup internal interaction. Another model he utilized is called the Interaction Model. This model identified the interaction between startups and supporting stakeholders.