Heaptalk, Jakarta – Qlue, one of the most comprehensive smart city ecosystem providers in Indonesia announces its Series B Funding. The round was led by Japanese investor, Global Brain, through its investment company, KDDI Open Innovation Fund III (KOIF III) followed by Indonesian investors, namely Telkomsel Mitra Inovasi (TMI) and ASLI RI.
Founder and CEO Qlue Rama Raditya said, the closing of Series B1 funding has shown the prospect of Qlue’s business in the smart city sector. With this investment, Qlue’s scalability will be raised in providing smart city solutions which can be impacted to society in entering the 4.0 industry era in Indonesia.
“We are very enthusiastic with this funding led by KDDI as one of the biggest telecommunication providers in Japan. The synergy between Qlue and KDDI share the same vision in accelerating city development through smart city technology. With the support from KDDI that has a business network globally will encourage Qlue’s market penetration in foreign markets,” Rama said.
In penetrating the global market, Qlue will aggressively work on Asia’s market as the main basis of its smart city solution development, by making Japan, Malaysia, and Phillipine as the main focus. For the domestic market, this scalability enhancement will encourage Qlue’s market to many industry sectors, such as health care service, industrial area management, hospitality, property developers, state-owned enterprises, and other various sectors.
Besides that, the investment led by KDDI will be utilized by Qlue to flesh out its various Artificial Intelligence (AI)-and-Internet of Things (IoT)-based solutions that are already deployed to market, and also to explore more about the solution which is currently under development. This strategy will strengthen Qlue’s positioning as the most comprehensive smart city ecosystem provider in Indonesia.
Director Indonesia Office Representative Global Brain Sho Ikeda said, Qlue provides a smart city platform that enables one-stop centralized control of the detection, analysis, and solution of urban problems through advanced technologies such as AI and IoT. Qlue’s products, which provide a comprehensive approach to various issues, contribute to enhancing urban functions across Indonesia through collaboration with many local governments, ministries, and private companies, including the capital city of Jakarta.
CEO Telkomsel Mitra Inovasi (TMI) Andi Kristianto said, “This action was based on the capability of Qlue in transforming the smart city comprehensive solution landscape in several countries, and the sustainability of this kind of business model for the long-term. Led by a dynamics team, Qlue not only showed resilience during the pandemic, but also was able to record a solid growth. We’re proud to be a part of Qlue’s journey both in Indonesia and other markets ahead,” said Andi.
According to COO ASLI RI Rionald Soerjanto, Qlue has shown its consistency in providing the most comprehensive smart city ecosystem in Indonesia, through an advanced AI and IoT-based technology. Qlue’s potential in order to create a huge and systemic social impact on society has convinced ASLI RI to participate in the Series B1 investment round.
In 2020, Qlue successfully recorded its business growth at 70% prior to the previous year. Its success was achieved by Qlue’s strategy that aggressively expanded its business in more than 58 cities in Indonesia and foreign countries with more than 133 clients in 2020. As the fourth world-most-populated country, Indonesia is experiencing rapid economic growth backed by its vast land and the world’s fourth-largest population. However, the country is still facing challenges such as frequent disasters and illegal activities due to underdeveloped urban infrastructure. In that case, the potential of the smart city market was predicted to be at US$ 820 billion by 2025
