By: Ahmad Sadat
Asiavesta Capital is an investment holding that invests in established small/medium-sized enterprises, has a strong and unique business, great growth and impact potential, and wants to transform into a corporation in an inorganic way.
We will be a strategic partner who helps restructure the company holistically so that it is ready to become a medium/large corporation and/or go public within 2 to 5 years.
The above is the mission of Asiavesta Capital. The mission that we have compiled and perfected in the last 2 years. And most importantly, we have already begun to prove it. If it hasn’t been proven I won’t necessarily share it here either. This mission and vision is still in the process of being refined, related to the rebranding process of Asiavesta Capital that we are currently doing. It may be that there will be some adjustments, but in essence there should be no significant changes.
I’ll explain the meaning. And in order to facilitate understanding, I also explained an example of its application in PT. IDeA Indonesia Akademi, Tbk (IDEA), a company that has collaborated with Asiavesta Capital since 2019, and as of September 2021 has become a public company by selling 20% of its shares, becoming the 750th member of the stock exchange, and becoming the only integrated hospitality and tourism training company to go public on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX).
The time it takes from the beginning of our investment in IDeA until the IPO is 2 years (2019-2021). A proud achievement, and is proof that the right synergy will bring powerful results.
Asiavesta Capital is an investment holding that invests in established small/medium-sized enterprises,…
We are investors. Not a consultant, or mentor/coach, or realtor who is paid based on his services. We will be selective once invested. Because investing means that in addition to depositing money, we also invest time, effort, expertise, network and everything needed to raise an investee. For this reason, we are ready to become consultants, coaches or mentors for investees.
We only invest in businesses that are already at Level 2 (Read the Level 2 definition here: https://amsadat.blog/2021/02/03/pengusaha-kecil-pengusaha-besar/). We do not invest in startups or companies that have not stabilized their business.
I am experienced in growing businesses from medium to large. Some I am directly involved in managing their business as a director and run organically, some I am just a strategic partner and develop inorganically. The latter I like better, and I applied it in IDeA Indonesia and some of our investments lately.
We will not control or take over the company, because we are an investment holding, not an operating holding. So the founder must remain the majority shareholder. We still need a founder to run a business after we join. Founders must remain focused on running the company’s operations and we focus on improving administration, legal and finance. Together, we are organizing medium and long-term strategies and developments.
When I met mas Eko at the TDA Entrepreneurship Party in January 2019, IDeA Indonesia was already the best hospitality training institution nationwide. He won 2nd place in 2017 and in 2019 won 1st place.
Founded in 2009, IDeA has gone through countless phases of ups and downs. Like businesses that start from scratch in general, this business also experiences a life/death phase of Level 1 Entrepreneurs. Until finally found the most suitable niche market and business model, since 2015, and established as a Level 2 Entrepreneur, until 2019.
IDeA Indonesia is an example of an established business.
Is it possible for us to invest in Level 3 or Level 4 Companies? Quite possibly. We have also done this at RelifeAsia (PT. Graha Mitra Asia), a company we co-founded with Relife Property Group. But we will be very selective with a collaboration model like this, because it will involve large investments, take a long time and require a slightly different strategy.
… have a strong and unique business, growth potential and great impact,…
Business is a lot. The good ones are also a lot. But there are only a few that are quite unique and not easy to imitate. There are businesses whose entry barrier is low, which means that everyone is very easy to imitate, but there are businesses that are not easy to imitate. The latter is what we’re looking for.
It could be because of his uniqueness that he has survived and developed so far, and most importantly, it could be because of his uniqueness that it will make his growth potential will still be very large in the long run.
The point is that the business must still be developed even though it has been raised later. Because there is also a business that is good but cannot be developed into a corporation, or if it is raised, it cannot develop anymore.
There are many hospitality training institutions. Hundreds across Indonesia. But IDeA Indonesia has its own uniqueness. Starting from the curriculum, the way it educates its students (pesantren-style character education), its discipline, which is very difficult for competitors to imitate.
One more of the most important: The guarantee of work. All IDeA graduates are guaranteed work. If it doesn’t work, the money back (terms and conditions apply). Why is that? One of them is because of the increasing number of enthusiasts in IDeA. Of the 2500s of registrants, only 900s were accepted. With such a strict selection, curriculum and good personality and character education, even companies or service users we no longer need to bother making selections because we have done it since the beginning. And that’s what happened, they lined up to get an IDeA graduate.
When he met us, mas Eko, the founder of IDeA Indonesia was building a hotel. He collected little by little money from his business to buy land and build the hotel of his dreams. His dream is to be able to have his own hotel so that he can train his students by directly practicing in his hotel. This ideal makes IDeA Indonesia the only hospitality training institution in Indonesia that is integrated with the Hotel as a Teaching Factory.
That’s what’s called high impact. It’s not just a business and making money.
…, and want to transform into a corporation
This is the most important thing: The owner wants his company to be able to develop into a corporation. Without this, we would just be friends. Many of my friends are entrepreneurs whose business is actually potential, but he really doesn’t want to be bigger. Is it wrong? Not at all.
Many entrepreneurs are already satisfied with being at Level 2. Because usually at this level a person is already quite rich, even wealthy.
Many also choose the path of investing or creating a new venture. Started again from scratch, but this time with considerable capital. So often these Level 2 Entrepreneurs have several businesses that are not interrelated.
The motivation to go to the next Level is usually not just wealth, but more than that. Continuous usefulness.
IDeA without Asiavesta Capital will definitely survive and grow. Will be able to build a hotel by yourself, although it will take a long time. And slowly what is aspired to will be achieved. Because IDeA already has that potential. But Mas Eko also knows that there is a way to speed up his ideals. That’s why he took Asiavesta for this reason.
… inorganic way.
He has been dreaming of owning his own hotel that will become the teaching factory of IDeA Indonesia since 2018, and since 2019 began to realize his dream by buying land, and began to build little by little. It is estimated that this hotel, which is his big dream, will be completed after 6-7 years.
But he knew that there was an event to realize his grand vision in a quick way. That is through inorganic pathways. For this reason, over the past few years he has begun to communicate with many parties to explore collaboration to accelerate the realization of his dream. In an inorganic way, IDeA made it all happen within 2 years of course.
Organic Growth can be called Scale Up, and Inorganic Growth is called Quantum Leap.
It means not in an organic or ordinary way. Inorganic means spurring growth by increasing capacity as much as possible. Soon. It can be through the addition of production facilities, as well as human resources and so on. It may be necessary to increase capital, which is sourced from own capital or loans.
This method – because it is not organic – will cause more or less shocks in the organization. The shock can be quite large or not, depending on the readiness of the organization. It can be in the form of disruptions due to the need for cultural adjustment due to the large number of people who have just joined, difficulty in coordination due to the rapid development of the organization, the unpreparedness of old human resources to adjust to the speed of the wheels of the organization to turn over or high turnover rates of employees.
At the same time, the owner’s leadership is tested, and honed. He can no longer lead in the old way, because the key of Level 3 is the system. Something that may not be needed at level 2, because usually the system is the owner itself.
This is also the case in IDeA. There are so many shocks that occur because the organization has grown to more than 2 times within 2 years. So is the capacity. In 2019 and 2020, IDeA recorded an increase in sales of more than 100% compared to previous years.
There are some people who fit this change, some who are regurgitating. Turn over is quite high. Some people have just joined, some are suitable, some are not suitable. Some survive, some run off the rink. The formation and system were replaced several times. Some failed. Some worked. But the longer the organization the more trained, where the change of formation will not have much effect on the operation of the enterprise, because of which all operations are based on systems and procedures. It’s not up to people.
(To be continued)