As the setting up of venture capital arms become an increasingly common strategy among Indonesia’s top banks, it is essential that these bank VCs find opportunities to collaborate rather than compete with one another, according to Michelle Suteja, Director of Central Capital Ventura, the VC unit of Indonesia’s largest private lender Bank Central Asia (BCA).
Indonesia witnessed the launch of the country’s first bank VC in 2015 when Bank Mandiri, the country’s largest lender by assets, set up Mandiri Capital Indonesia. The move was followed two years later by BCA. Now, state-owned lender Bank BRI is in the process of acquiring an existing VC firm, while another state lender BNI is also reportedly considering jumping on the bandwagon.
