5 Outstanding Female Investors and Entrepreneurs from Indonesia

Mar 19, 2023

Female Investors and Entrepreneurs from Indonesia – Business and investment have always been about taking a risk; it is one of the reasons why the two sectors have always been related to men, as they were said to be more of a risk-taker than women. According to Moxie Future’s report about Understanding Female Investors, when it comes to investing, women want more than just good financial returns; they also want to invest in something that matches their values and ideals.

Nowadays female investors and entrepreneurs have emerged and proved themselves to be as capable as men, if not more. As it has also been the case in Indonesia, here are 5 outstanding female investors and entrepreneurs that successfully carry out their respective role.

Read also: 8 Venture Capital Firms in Indonesia and Southeast Asia

1. Erika Dianasari Go

Female Investors Erika Dianasari Go

Source https://alphajwc.com

Erika is Alpha JWC Ventures’ Value Creation Partner. She is a venture capitalist with expertise in human capital and business transformation. Alpha JWC ventures is known for their value-add principle. They help portfolio companies improve in terms of products, communications, and human capital. As a Value Creation Partner, Erika holds responsibility in ensuring this matter.

Erika spent seven years at Egon Zehnder, where she advised leading companies on their talent acquisition, internal talent assessments, and talent retention strategies. She also has an experience as a General Manger at MPMX where she led corporate planning and business development at the holding company level, and also led the business transformation at the portfolio company level. Her experience has led her to be selected by SWA magazine as one of Indonesia’s Future Business Leader in 2016.

Read Also: Fintech Investment: Definition, Tips, and Risks

2. Dea Surjadi

Female Investors Dea Surjadi

Source https://www.linkedin.com/in/deasurjadi/

Dea Surjadi is the female investor leading Indonesia’s operation for Golden Gate Ventures, a Southeast Asia-focused venture capital with over 60 portfolios. Her role is to support Golden Gate Ventures’ portfolio companies to grow while also always on the lookout for new startups to invest in. She joined Golden Gate Ventures in 2017 with a business development role in Indonesia and became Head of Indonesia at the end of 2018.

Dea started her professional career as a news producer in a TV station in the United States. Dea initially came from journalism, marketing, and PR background; she has a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from Missouri School of Journalism.

Read Also: Early Startup Funding Stages: Explained From Seed to IPO

3. Shinta Kamdani

Female Investors Shinta Kamdani

Source https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinta_Kamdani

Shinta is a female entrepreneur and investor from Indonesia who currently leads her family’s company, Sintesa Group, as a CEO. Shinta began her career as an intern at Revlon and Price Waterhouse while studying in the United States. She joined her family business after graduating, starting from the bottom of the career ladder as the promotion and marketing staff, focusing on consumer products.

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While being a businesswoman herself, Shinta also holds great interest in improving the environment and future of entrepreneurs in Indonesia. She is the Co-Founder of ANGIN, Indonesia’s largest network of angel investors; GEPI, a non-profit organization that aims to support early-stage entrepreneurship in Indonesia through its incubation and angel investment; and IBCSD, an association of companies in Indonesia committed to promoting sustainable economic growth, ecological balance, and social progress.

4. Ellen May

Ellen May investor wanita indonesia

Ellen May (Source: socialmediaweek).

Ellen May has been in stock investing since 2007 and managed to survive the crisis in 2008. Her success through the crisis became a turning point in her life to commit to increasing literacy and inclusion in the financial sector, especially the capital market.

This Indonesian female investor has started educating online through social media since 2010. She has also attended various seminars since 2011, both independently and in collaboration with capital market institutions, universities, and regulators such as IDX and OJK.

Ellen has also written three books entitled Smart Traders Not Gamblers, Smart Trader Rich Investor, and Nabung Saham Sekarang. The three books she wrote became national bestsellers.

It did not stop there, her determination to increase literacy and inclusion in the capital market sector was also realized digitally by establishing the edufintech platform Emtrade in 2016.

Also Read: Short Term Investment: Definition, Risk, and The Examples

5. Michelle Surjaputra

Female Investors Michelle Surjaputra

Source https://id.pinterest.com/pin/207024914091702012/

Michelle Surjaputra is a female entrepreneur who graduated from New York University – Leonard N. Stern School of Business in 2011. She returned to Indonesia after spending 16 years living in the United States. Before starting her own business, Michelle worked in PR marketing for Bank Indonesia.

Read Also: Gen Z is rewriting the Indonesian consumer sector story

Michelle saw a great opportunity in the F&B service and founded PT Michelindo International food at the age of 22. She noticed that Indonesia people like eating their fried chicken with rice; combined with the Korean wave that happened around that time, Michelle then worked insistently and actually successfully able to hold the Master Franchise for BonChon, a Korean fast-food fried chicken brand, to Indonesia back in 2012. Recognizing that Indonesia has a major Muslim market and how hard it is to get a halal certificate for BonChon, it has since rebranded into Chick ‘n Roll with 11 outlets all around Indonesia.