BSD City. Property developer Sinar Mas Land recently announced that it has launched the Urban Gateway Fund, also known as UGF, which is an early-stage fund that will invest in promising startups seeking to drive the development of full-scale smart cities in Indonesia, starting with BSD City.

Sinar Mas Land will manage the UGF in a strategic partnership with East Ventures, Redbadge Pacific and Prasetia Dwidharma. The program will support startup projects and companies focused on property technology (proptech)  and urban living sectors.

GS E&C, a leader in Korean construction and development, will also be an investor and strategic partner in the Urban Gateway Fund as they deepen their long-term partnership with Sinar Mas Land in Indonesia.

UGF will seek primarily to support startups developing solutions in six segments of urban living technologies – namely mobility and transportation, property technology, data analytics and artificial intelligence, omnichannel retail (for both online and brick-and-mortar stores), sustainable resources management, and smart city tech, all of which meet the fundamental needs of next-generation urban development.  

UGF will open access to an existing smart city ecosystem in BSD City and other Sinar Mas Land townships through 3 avenues.

First, UGF, along with Sinar Mas Land, will provide a test-bed platform and facilitate the direct integration of ideas and prototype solutions into Sinar Mas Land’s vibrant communities.

Second, UGF will provide a comprehensive support to allow startups to incubate and validate their innovative and disruptive solutions in urban scale.

Third, UGF will provide access to Sinar Mas Land’s leadership to support innovation and disruption in its main business of city development and property management. 

“As we transform BSD City into an integrated smart digital city, we remain committed to creating opportunities for startups to enrich our ecosystem with their innovative ideas and solutions. UGF provides us with an additional, structured, avenue to bring promising startups into BSD City, where they will have opportunities to test and refine their solutions with funding support from UGF," Sinar Mas Land group chief executive officer Michael Widjaja said in a recent press statement.

"We hope that the innovations they bring will enhance the quality of life and be enjoyed widely by our communities,” Michael added.

East Ventures also looks forward to work together with Sinar Mas Land.

“When Michael Widjaja told me his vision a couple of years ago to transform BSD City into a progressive digital living space, we immediately bought in and since then have been working together to accelerate the vision. East Ventures will continue to be supportive and will push forward digital innovation in Indonesia and BSD City is going to be our huge living lab to implement all the innovation from our ecosystem,” East Ventures co-founder and managing partner Willson Cuaca said.

According to Redbadge Pacific managing partner Timothy Yong, Sinarmas Land's ecosystem and deep captive market through its township BSD City will not only drive growth for startups within the proptech & urban living segments.

"But [it will also] result in value creation for these companies looking to harness the platform and ecosystem of Indonesia’s leading developer. Having this strategic support and ecosystem is paramount for startups and companies in their early stages of growth in the proptech sector," Timothy said.

Ardi Setiadharma, the chief financial officer of Prasetia Dwidharma, said the company had been working with Sinar Mas Land in its accelerator program Escalate.

"We supported startups that we think can grow in Sinar Mas Land’s ecosystem. UGF will be a perfect fit to channel the best graduates from Escalate who brings out technological developments needed by the leading smart cities. We are excited to be on board with UGF to enable more local startups to showcase their technologies and solutions and guide them to be the leader in Indonesia or even in Asia," Ardi said.