Frequently Asked Question

The Venture Factory of Scholars is open for participants in Indonesia.

The grand finale will be held in September 2023 in Jakarta, Indonesia. The venue will be announced at a later date. Accommodations during the event will be covered by Lestari and Partner.

Shortlisted companies will be announced on the 16th of June 2023. The announcement will be sent to the email used to register to the program.

The Venture Factory Bootcamp and Mentoring program will be conducted fully online via Zoom every Saturday where each team must attend and participate in synchronous mentoring sessions by experts in the field of Venture Creation. To ensure the progress of participants every week, there will be Weekly Tasks that must be completed by participants to build their business.

Participants must do the following during Bootcamp:

• Be present and active in Mentoring sessions every Saturday at 10.00 – 12.00 WIB.
• Read Weekly Task which will be given every Saturday after the Mentoring session.
• Completing and submitting Weekly Tasks every Thursday at 12.00 WIB.
• On top of the Bootcamp, participants can book a mentoring session/office hour with mentors for an in-depth discussion regarding their venture development.

100 ventures will be shortlisted to receive mentoring.

Top 10 Ventures will be shortlisted and will pitch at the Venture Showcase Day.

Participants will gain access to a highly-curated and highly selective Venture Factory program and gain access to business mentoring, key stakeholders in the industry, startup ecosystem, and funding. 

Venture Factory participants will automatically join the Lestari Innovation Hub and gain perks such as credits for cloud infrastructure from AWS.

Venture Factory for Scholars program contains 3 continuous sub-program:

Venture Factory

Entrepreneurial community where Lestari provides intensive training and mentoring to Teams (consisted of min. 2 people where at least 1 member are scholars)) that have created a business plan, with the intention to develop their business models, find product-market fit, launch their ventures and gain traction. The bootcamp covers topics such as business plan development, financial forecasting, marketing, sales, and MVP creation. 

Selection

During the program, 100 Teams will be selected based on their eagerness to learn and business ideas on whether they will be moving on to the second phase of Venture Factory. Teams that are selected will be gaining mentorship from practitioners and experts in the industry. 

Venture Showcase Day

Venture Showcase Day is a pitch event and venture fair where selected teams present their venture to a panel of judges and a live audience. The judges could provide feedback and ask questions, and the audience could also ask questions and provide feedback.

During the event, teams will also showcase their ventures by setting up booths or displays and network with potential investors, partners, and customers.

Participating teams must propose an innovative venture focusing on at least one of the 10 themes. If the venture addresses multiple topics, teams can choose a main theme the business addresses.

However, one team is allowed to propose as many ideas/innovations/business plans as they want.

Venture Factory for Scholars is accepting submissions between 16 May to 16 June 2023, 23.59 PM (GMT+7) through form.

Requirements

1. A team consists of a minimum 2 people (in which the majority of founder and co-founder are Indonesian citizens).
2. Each Team has to register a minimum of one (1) scholars as team member
3. Team members are fully committed to completing the program.
4. The innovations proposed by the team are original and are focusing on at least one of the 10 themes.

Each team has to be made up of minimum one (1) scholars. Professionals are welcomed to join.

The Venture Factory program is tailored to teams in the early stages of venture development. We encourage post seed-stage startups to join other programs from Lestari such as the Lestari accelerator program.

Teams (consisted of min. 2 people) that have created a business plan, with the intention to develop their business models, find product-market fit, launch their ventures and gain traction, are eligible to apply.

Additionally, teams need to propose impactful innovation/ventures within the topics of the Venture Factory for Scholars.

1. Renewable energy: Developing innovative solutions for the production, storage, and distribution of renewable energy, such as solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal, and biomass.
2. Sustainable transportation: Creating new ideas for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector, including electric vehicles, alternative fuels, smart mobility, and autonomous driving.
3. Carbon capture and storage: Designing solutions for capturing carbon dioxide from industrial processes and power plants, and storing it safely and permanently underground or using it for commercial purposes.
4. Sustainable agriculture and food systems: Innovating new practices for reducing emissions from agriculture, such as improving soil health, reducing fertilizer use, and increasing the use of sustainable farming practices.
5. Green buildings and infrastructure: Developing solutions for reducing the energy consumption and carbon footprint of buildings, such as energy-efficient materials, smart lighting and heating systems, and green roofs.
6. Circular economy and waste reduction: Creating strategies for reducing waste and using resources more efficiently, such as recycling, reusing, repairing, and sharing products and materials.
7. Climate finance and investment: Developing financial tools and mechanisms to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy, such as green bonds, impact investing, and carbon pricing
8. Climate Education: Create tools and resources for raising awareness and educating people about the impacts of climate change, the importance of decarbonization, and the opportunities for action.
9. Climate adaptation and resilience: Creating solutions for adapting to the impacts of climate change, such as extreme weather events, sea level rise, and food and water scarcity.
10. Environmental justice and social equity: Addressing the disproportionate impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities and developing solutions that promote social equity and environmental justice.

Teams are expected to submit their ideas/solution that addresses challenges in the target topics. If the ideas/solution addresses challenges outside of the target topics, participants can choose the closest topics that the solution addresses

Indonesia has set an ambitious yet promising goal to cut carbon to net-zero by 2060.  Venture Factory for Net Zero Emission aims to be Indonesia’s biggest platform for venture creation to achieve this goal. 

Tackling the main challenges that Indonesian scholars aspiring to build research-based startups are facing: the lack of access to funding, mentorship, and networks – Lestari is launching the Venture Factory for Scholars.

Venture Factory for Scholars is Indonesia’s largest decarbonization venture generation platform of the year designed to expedite venture generations of Indonesian scholars.

Teams of scholars will be gaining mentorship from industry experts to develop their existing business models, find product-market fit, launch their ventures and gain first traction during the 3-month venture factory program. 

By the end of the program, there will be 100 ventures created and ready to accelerate. 10 Teams will be selected to compete for a total grant pool of IDR 200 Million to pilot their solutions within Indonesia, receive global exposure, be granted access to investors, and many other perks and benefits.

You can learn more about mentoring here.

We receive multiple inquiries like this, so unfortunately we can’t engage deeply with everyone that want to study us right now. We have the great fortune of having been covered extensively by the media and our website is very thorough. We encourage you to look through our mission to see if this information answers your question.

We have office around Indonesia, and many are busy running programs throughout the year. We are happy to consider taking an appointment, so please contact us.

Yes! However, we do not have an available position now. Keep an eye on our website as we constantly update our postings.

We support entrepreneurs who are in Lestari programs, including mentorship-driven programs and community programs is everywhere. We encourage you to determine which would be most helpful to you at this stage of your company journey.

We invest primarily through or mentorship-driven programs.

Unfortunately, at this time we are not financially supporting any events outside of Lestari.

We provide financial support to organizations committed to increasing diversity in entrepreneurship. You can find more information, and apply for funding, by contacting us here.

Please tell us about the company

Lestari provides accelerator portfolio companies with access to financial, human, and intellectual capital to fuel the success of their business. We connect selected startups to investors and industrial partners that otherwise would be hard to access. To ensure the smoothness of our program, we also provide internet quota, travel, and accommodation expenses when deemed necessary.

The benefits will depend on the program itself, but in general:

• Access to Lestari resources for life
• Exclusive mentorship program, both personal and group mentorship
• Lifetime access to Lestari Network; founders, alumni, and mentors globally
• Demo Day and other investor connections.

For our virtual program, we will provide you with monthly internet quota/expenses to ensure your engagement during the program. We want you to focus on creating a great product while you’re here, and not have to worry about all this other stuff.

We fund all types of startups, working in all verticals, using any type of business models. Do keep in mind, however, that our focus is on startups rather than small businesses.

We do our best to avoid accepting competitive companies into the same program class. However, with the growing number of Lestari companies, there may be competitive companies in the broader Lestari’s network. In the event there is a company in the Lestari’s portfolio that’s competitive, we work tirelessly to ensure there is no exchange of sensitive data.

Upon acceptance to a Lestari program, the startup will receive some benefits. The benefits will depend on the program itself, but in general:

• Access to Lestari resources for life
• Exclusive mentorship program, both personal and group mentorship
• Lifetime access to Lestari Network; founders, alumni, and mentors globally
• Demo Day and other investor connections

The primary language that we use in verbal and written communications during all programs-in every area-is Indonesian. While we might communicate with you in English if necessary in 1-1 setting, we will still communicate in Indonesian for group events.

This does happen now and then. However, it is dependent on the stage of the business. In addition, each startup only can apply for one Lestari program (and can not join outside of the Lestari Program) at the same time.

We look at team, team, team, market, progress, idea-in that order. We choose great founders who are proposing products that solve real problems or create meaningful innovations. For us, it’s about the team. For this reason, we’re less likely to accept single founder companies (you’re less likely to have all the skills your company needs to succeed). The best things you can do to strengthen your application are:

• Round out your team with business, technical, and other necessary skills.
• Make progress on your prototype or product and reference it in the application.
• Show us you’ve really thought about your business and have gotten out there to do something about it.
• Demonstrate early traction or provide data points to validate your core assumptions.

We’ve had companies start with fully developed products and we helped them with business models, introductions, financing and more. Likewise, nothing is too early. We’ve accepted companies with no more than an idea, a dream, and maybe a cat. Of course, we prefer a dedicated, solid team that has been working together for some time rather than a newly -formed team where everybody just knows each other briefly.

Yes, you will be able to view and access all your applications.

If you have submitted an application and would like to change or update any information please contact us. Let us know what you would like to change along with the name of your startup on your application.

Unfortunately, we don’t allow late applications in order to move through our very tight schedule for selection and to be fair to all applicants. The next round of applications will be open soon, and you can always find our open applications here.

No. We receive thousands of applications per year, which is why we have an application process. Systematically emailing some or all of our mentors in order to try to influence them before being accepted into the program will hurt you more than it will help you. The mentors are dedicated to helping the companies that we select, but they are not a part of the selection process.

You can apply to any program, and we’ve funded companies from many different area. You do have to be legally in the program area during the program, of course. Once you are accepted into a program, we might help with legal issues by leveraging our contacts and network to help. However, we cannot help them in advance of acceptance to Lestari.

While we don’t screen applications just because they have a single founder, it does make things more difficult. The question we ask is: do you have all the skills your company needs to succeed?

We look for great, balanced teams who have a full range of skills. We strongly advise you to seek so-founders who balance your skillset. For example, if you’re a strong developer you might consider adding someone with business and/or marketing experience. If you’re a great business evangelist with no developer, it’s very unlikely we’ll accept you into the program, so go find a rock star developer to join you.

No.

After applications close, we’ll have a clear timeline on when we open the selection, and when we will announce the result for each program, and spend time getting to know even more about your team, market, progress and idea. In general, our goal is to notify the final group of companies being accepted within eight weeks from the application closing date. However, it could be sooner or later than the time we estimated.

You can find all of our programs with open applications here, and deadlines on each respective program page.

All applications close at 23.59 WIB on the date indicated on their program page.

You only need to submit one application to programs running at the same time, for example to all programs starting in 2022, you only can apply for one program. The application process will help limit this for you.

Within your application, let us know if you are interested in another program. Regardless of what you select, we’ll review your choices and also see if you are a good fit for other programs.

No. You just need to fill out the online application. However, if you have one, you are welcome to send it too.

We’re not in the business of stealing ideas, and we treat application data as confidential information. Our application does not ask for your “secret sauce” and there is no reason you have to disclose this to us is you’re not comfortable doing so. We hope that our reputation speaks for itself on this topic.

Yes! We’re happy to consider any application. Just remember that the biggest thing we look at is team, team, team.