UNS – The series of events at the Sebelas Maret Startup Academy (Semesta) Wirausaha Merdeka of Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta 2023 on the second day proved to be equally captivating and vibrant. The activities on Sunday (10/12/2023) began with pitching sessions by dozens of UNS-supported enterprises. There were 60 Semesta WMK UNS groups and 40 combined groups from participants in the investment summit and Semesta Bright UNS 2023.
The day’s activities continued with speed dating between participants and investment reviewers, aimed at opening opportunities for young business players to gain investment support from external parties. The event concluded with an award ceremony and graduation.
Semesta WMK UNS invited 11 investment reviewers as a jury to evaluate 100 young business groups from various regions in Indonesia. The jury members included individuals from venture capital firms such as Liliek Setiawan from Socrates, Djoko Kurniawan from DK Consulting, and Audi Prasetya from Instellar. Other jurors included Rohmad Nur Cahyo from the Branch Management Board (BPC) of the Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs Association (HIPMI) in Surakarta, Maliyana Wijayanti from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) in Surakarta, and Ali Alkatiri from the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs of the Republic of Indonesia.
Furthermore, the Indonesian Business Incubator Association (AIBI) Summit and AIBI Meeting, which are also part of the Semesta WMK UNS Demo Day events, took place successfully. These activities were held in the Auditorium of Building 3 of the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) at UNS. AIBI Summit served as a forum for bringing together the startup incubator ecosystem in Indonesia. Meanwhile, the AIBI Meeting was a forum for AIBI members to report on inter-divisional activities and support the growth of the business incubator ecosystem to create positive collaborations for entrepreneurs and startups in Indonesia.
Ali Alkatiri expressed that the Semesta WMK UNS Demo Day is a powerful and impactful event to boost the confidence of young entrepreneurs. He emphasized that working in the field of entrepreneurship offers hope for economic gains and expressed the hope that such events can continue.
“We, from the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs, with our four deputy ministers, strongly support the running of events like this. We can help young business players open and access markets because we have a target to birth 10 million novice entrepreneurs,” Ali said.
Participants conveyed that the event was memorable and significantly beneficial for startups in various fields. They mentioned that such events provide opportunities to sell products, generate sales, and enhance brand awareness.
“Of course, we highly recommend other startup teams join in the next batch if it opens,” Falach Noor Syahid, a member of the Habitz startup team, explained.
Kresna Bayu Aji, the head of the organizing committee, urged everyone involved to keep generating new business ideas. He also hoped that efforts to realize the businesses being built would continue.
“I ask that we all continue to strive to bring forth new ideas and not stop fighting for these ideas,” he said.
Humas UNS
Reporter: R. P. Adji
Editor: Dwi Hastuti