Telkom Indonesia, Telstra launch VC partnership

Telkom will participate in the vehicle via its corporate venture arm, Metra Digital Investama, with investments expected to focus on start-ups in sectors including e-commerce, e-health, the internet-of-things and financial technology. It will aim to leverage the existing networking capacity of Telkomtelstra, a telecommunications services joint venture established by Telkom and Telstra in 2014.

"Our ventures investments are increasingly occurring in Asia and we are very excited to be collaborating with Telkom to identify the best new emerging technology companies in the region," Cynthia Whelan, Telstra group executive for international and new businesses, said in a statement. "With the entrepreneurial talent across Southeast Asia and a population of 600 million people, including some of the heaviest users of social media and mobiles in the world, this a great time to be working more closely with Indonesia's biggest telecommunications company on investment opportunities."

Telkom provides cloud-based, server-based and e-payment services as well as IT, e-commerce and other portal services. It demonstrated interest in Indonesia's emerging start-up ecosystem in 2014 with a pledge to commit $200 million to early-stage technology companies while forging partnerships with US venture firms.

Recent Telstra activity in Southeast Asia includes an LP commitment to a regionally focused fund managed by Singapore's Monk Hill Ventures, which closed in April above its $80 million target. In total, Telstra claims to have invested more than A$200 million ($152 million) across more than 30 technology companies.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Technology
• Consumer
• Media
• Early-stage
• Telstra Ventures
• Indonesia
• Australia
• Venture