Dear Subscriber,
Just last week, we put out our latest digest on Indonesia’s QRIS payment, a milestone driven in no small part by the backbone of Indonesia’s MSMEs. Kicking off this September, the appointment of Destry Damayanti as the first woman to lead Bank Indonesia (BI) brings a fresh sense for the country’s fast-moving digital sector.
Economic stability will, of course, remain BI’s top priority. But there’s a great room for optimism on the digital payment front specifically. Destry isn’t new to this space. She pledged that QRIS digitalization will be continued under her leadership.
In this monthly newsletter, we’ve rounded up some good highlights throughout August from our tech and digital scene, including Ajaib’s mega funding, among others, and see Stockbit and Kopi Kenangan are turning growth into real profits.
Stay curious,
Foundry Collective
August venture funding: A quick recap
Throughout the month, Indonesian startup companies continued to secure fresh funding, with capital flowing into fintech, health, and logistics, often recognized as active sectors in the country’s venture funding:.
💰Ajaib casts its ‘magic’ with a $270 million: the latest Series C was injected from Japan-based financial giant SBI Holdings, marking the country’s largest tech fundraising round since 2022. The timing is pretty notable as Indonesia’s crypto market showed mixed signals in the first half of 2026. Users grew to 23 million, but transaction value down by 33% amid a broader global slowdown. Still, the participation from major institutional player here is worth watching to see where the strategic partnership unfolds.
🏥 Bumame taps fresh capital for Indonesia’s next healthcare wave: the strategic investment from conglomerate Sinar Mas’ LLV Japan Thematic Fund is set to connect between Japan’s capabilities and our growth opportunities. Japan’s medtech sector alone is valued at US$35.9 billion, a glimpse of how Japanese innovation could meet the demands of Indonesia’s challenging healthcare market, both for preventive- and curative-based solutions.
🚚 Logistics keeps raising: Waresix raised a fresh $27.4 million round based on the company’s latest filing, anchored by Granite Asia, Jungle Ventures, and East Ventures, while fleet management startup McEasy closed a $9 million Series B for predictive fleet AI, as Eftsure entered the Singapore market.
Taken all together, these rounds suggests investors’ appetite remains intact, and a positive for Indonesia’s venture funding as we approach the year-end.
Turning growth into gains
Sequoia Capital-backed companies Stockbit and Kopi Kenangan are showing a more encouraging signs for Indonesia’s digital economy in which both companies reported financial gains. What we see here is more on a broader lens, both companies showed resilient strategies across distinctly different consumer markets, even amid a challenging economic environment.
📈 Stockbit, an online stock investment and trading platform, reported its net profit surged more than tenfold to $21.8 million (Rp385.4 billion) in the first half of 2026, largely driven by brokerage activity. Revenue reached $33 million (Rp582.2 billion) during the period, suggesting continued demand for brokerage services despite a challenging market environment.
The growth was attributed by some key factors, including great knowledge of investment among users and the expanding investor base. This also was reflected as Indonesia’s capital-market investor base also reached a new record of 28.81 million investors as of June 2026, up 41% year-to-date, highlighting continued appetite among the country’s retail investors.
🥤Moving on, Indonesia’s coffee-chain unicorn, Kopi Kenangan, surely seems to be living up to its name, posting net profit of $17.2 million (Rp312.7 billion) for the year ended December 31, 2025, turning a Rp38 billion ($2.1 million) net loss a year earlier.
The turnaround marked the company’s first full-year profit after several years focusing on expansion. As reported by DealStreetAsia, revenue growth outpaced operating costs even as the company continued investing in new stores.
Taken into this case, Indonesia is known as one of the world’s major coffee producers, but a Deloitte study showed the recent acceleration with the coffee-drinking culture isn’t just about the coffee itself. According to data cited by Kompas, domestic coffee consumption has grown from 4.45 million bags in the 2020-2021 period to 4.8 million bags by the end of 2025, showing how steady the domestic market expansion is.
The new formats, which are described as ready-to-drink and grab-to-go has become increasingly embedded in Indonesians’ daily lives, particularly among younger consumers, as cafes evolve into social spaces and workplaces.
AI moves from assistant to action
🤖 Here’s also a sign where Indonesian fintech headed next: multi-asset investment platform Pluang revealed to have launched an agentic trading feature by embedding ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini directly to a live investment account. This feature also made Pluang the first Indonesian retail investment platform to do so.
The move comes as Indonesian financial regulators are increasingly establishing guardrails for the responsible adoption of AI. Last year, April 29, OJK launched “Tata Kelola Kecerdasan Artifisial Perbankan Indonesia”, calling for AI to be developed and deployed responsibly, with effective risk management, security, ethics and regulatory compliance.
While OJK’s framework is specifically aimed at the banking sector, the direction is significant for the broader financial-services ecosystem. Pluang’s move points to a potential next phase of fintech. Whether AI does more than surface information or offer investment insights, we’ll be watching closely.
💵 Coming next to our radar: a shift toward venture debt as more Indonesian startups look beyond equity for their next round. More on that soon!