Indonesia's Bhinneka gets $22m from Ideosource

The investment, which Bhinneka announced at the Tech in Asia Jakarta conference, is Ideosource's largest commitment since its founding in 2009. Bhinneka will use the capital to add to its team, build market share and introduce more product categories, and expand its marketing efforts.

Edward Chamdani, managing partner and co-founder of Ideosource, will join Bhinneka's marketing and business development staff.

This is the first external funding for Bhinneka, which has been self-funded since it launched in 1999. The company sells consumer electronics, computers, communication equipment and IT products through its website, and recently launched an online marketplace for electronics brands to sell to consumers directly.

Bhinneka is one of the few large Indonesian e-commerce businesses to be profitable. In addition to its online presence, the company also maintains a chain of offline stores and service centers to deal with customers in person. It claims that its website receives about 180,000 visitors per day and has more than a million active monthly users.

"Being a pioneer in Indonesian ecommerce, Bhinneka has a proven track record in serving Indonesian consumers, businesses, and the government," said Ideosource Managing Partner Andi Boediman. "We believe it gives them an unmatched advantage in understanding and winning the market."

Boediman and Chamdani originally launched Ideosource as an incubator, but switched their focus to venture capital, feeling that this offered more opportunities for attaining scale. The firm was an early supporter of Indonesian game studio Touchten Games, which raised a Series C round for an undisclosed amount earlier this year, and joined other VC firms and incubators in 2013 to form a lobbying group called the Alliance of Venture Capitals in Indonesia (AVCII).

E-commerce firms have been a particularly attractive target for investors in recent years; many industry watchers believe the offline retail sector is underpenetrated and online competitors have the potential to fill the resulting void. Just this year, OPT SEA has led a $1.5 million Series A round for online marketplace IndoTrading, Ardent Capital committed $2.5 million to B2B portal Bizzy, and YJ Capital invested an undisclosed amount in fashion flash sale site VIP Plaza.

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