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Francisco Widjojo
CEO at Arkblu Capital
Francisco Widjojo is the Founding Partner and CEO of Arkblu Capital, a private investment group that focuses on managing a diverse global business and investment portfolio. The firm has offices in both Jakarta, Indonesia and Sydney, Australia, and it aims to invest in ventures that empower the growing middle class in Indonesia as the country strives to become one of the top ten economies by 2030.1
Professional Background
- Current Role: As CEO of Arkblu Capital since August 2019, Widjojo leads a team that invests across various asset classes and partners with ambitious tech founders and venture capital fund managers throughout Southeast Asia.1
- Previous Experience: He has a background in corporate law, having worked as a Corporate M&A/ECM Lawyer at Baker McKenzie from September 2017 to December 2018.1
Education
Widjojo holds multiple degrees:
- Master of Commerce (Finance) from the University of Sydney.
- Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and Bachelor of Business (Accounting) from the University of Technology Sydney, where he graduated with honors.
- He also participated in a Global Exchange Program at the City University of Hong Kong and attended summer school at the London School of Economics.1
Languages
He is proficient in:
- English (native)
- Indonesian (full professional proficiency)
- Mandarin Chinese (limited working proficiency) .1
Interests
Widjojo is passionate about fostering relationships between Australia and Indonesia, particularly through investment in technology that benefits everyday Indonesians. He is also an Executive Committee Member for the Australia Indonesia Business Council in New South Wales.1
Highlights
With everyone’s business engines beginning to rev up for 2024, I sat down with Quynh Nguyen from DealStreetAsia late last year to discuss one of the investment focuses of Arkblu Capital for the upcoming year To summarise this focus in one word it would be ‘partnership’ We are on the lookout for overseas technology companies expanding into the Indonesian market and require an Indonesian local partner As international operators become more familiar with the growing needs of Indonesian consumers and Indonesian businesses, so too does the products they are building have greater product-market fit with the market As an international operator you have several options at your disposal when considering international expansion: go it alone and rely on suppliers and service providers; have a friendly investor on your cap table who is based in the market give you a lending hand; or enter into some form of partnership arrangement with a local operator We can be both the second option and third option combined #technology #Indonesia #Australia
Which Indonesian tech giant and global Chinese tech company are discussing a partnership? 🇮🇩🇨🇳 Indonesia’s largest internet company GoTo and ByteDance-owned TikTok 🛍 It has been a roller coaster ride for TikTok in Indonesia 🎢 Entering Indonesia in 2021, by 2022 TikTok Shop acquired 5% of Indonesia's e-commerce market (source: Momentum Works) Although still far off Tokopedia’s 35% market share, its sharp rise had everyone talking – including the Indonesian government In October of this year, online shopping on social media platforms was banned to protect smaller merchants and user data 🛑 The TikTok that Gen Zs love, dance to and watch is still available, but selling is prohibited on the app TikTok has 125 million users in Indonesia – just under half of the country’s population GoTo notified the market last week that talks with ByteDance are ongoing but a deal is not final Interestingly, Indonesian SME minister Pak Teten Masduki has said that ByteDance has spoken to several Indonesian tech companies, including Bukalapak and Blibli, about possible partnerships “Partnership” is obviously a broad term used quite liberally in business An equity investment by TikTok Shop in GoTo’s Tokopedia subsidiary is a possibility💡 So is a JV where the two entities become investors in a new company The combined business would make it the clear market leader in Indonesia’s e-commerce race Such a tie-up would be the first for ByteDance and could act as a playbook for its global strategy📘 Q: How do you see the dominance of TikTok Shop developing in local markets? #Indonesia #tech #ecommerce
