UNS — Startup development has captured the interest of the young generation, including Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta students. Muhammad Rafi Prasetyo, Civil Engineering student of 2017, developed a Civil Arch startup for a marketplace that facilitates the meeting between project owners and architectural professionals in Indonesia while providing household appliances for its users.
Civil Arch was developed based on Rafi’s interest to start a consultancy business for architecture and civil engineering services. The idea was prepared on April 2021 and was submitted to UNS Innovation Hub Semesta by Rafi’s group that consisted of students from a diverse educational backgrounds such as engineering, developer, and business management. The idea aims to answer the issue regarding the lack of community knowledge concerning architectural and construction designs. “Mostly will ask their acquaintances, while others are searching in the internet or social media. While the architects have difficulty to find clients,” Rafi explained to uns.ac.id team on Saturday (29/1/2022).
The most challenging part of Civil Arch development is connecting the idea, problem solution, and creative developments for the generated idea. The marketplace form of their startup also poses another challenge for the team to retain their customers. Thus, idea validation becomes vital in the whole process. Therefore, the team did their best to obtain information from their target consumers and users.
The hard works of its founders secured significant funding for Civil Arch. The proposal secured IDR 20,000,000 funding from UNS Innovation Hub and IDR 100,000,000 funding from Achmad Zaky Foundation. Securing funding from the latter foundation was not an easy task. The team was required to have a pitching session with the Director of Achmad Zaky Foundation and solve problems and provide the best solutions before being announced as one of 30 funded startups out of 3,000 applicants.
However, their struggle did not stop there. After being selected as best 30, the team went through a mentoring session with Patamar Capital, venture capital for mass-market firms in the Southeast Asia region, between August-December 2021. During the mentoring, the team was provided with IDR 5,000,000 funds to develop a minimum viable product that brought them to win the final funding from Achmad Zaky Foundation.
Civil Arch, in a way, is a manifestation of Rafi’s way of life to benefit the community. “Hopefully, our presence (in the community) benefits others,” he concluded. Humas UNS
Reporter: Zalfaa Azalia Pursita
Editor: Dwi Hastuti