Raditya Pramana, Becoming Investment Manager for Indonesia’s Biggest VC at Mild Age
He appeared calm and focused. Seriousness in his doings reflects out of his statements at the Awarding Night for the Best Graduates BINUS INTERNATIONAL and BINUS BUSINESS SCHOOL, Wednesday (2/12), in BINUS NORTHUMBRIA SCHOOL OF DESIGN (BNSD) Campus. On that occasion, the Honorable Mention Award was awarded to Raditya for the fruit of his seriousness, participation, and achievements in a number of campus activities and programmes.
Up to November, Raditya Pramana has been working for a month as Investment Manager in Venturra Capital, the largest venture capital company in Indonesia affiliated with the Lippo Group conglomeration. For a background information, Venturra Capital recently went public this October, as reported by a press release. At the helm of this company are John Riady, Lippo Group Director; Rudy Ramawi, former Google Indonesia Country Director and currently MatahariMall.com Vice Chairman; and Stefan Jung, Rocket Internet Southeast Asia Founder and Managing Partner.
For a starting step, Venturra Capital fully committed US$ 150 million fund to focusing on investments throughout Indonesia and Southeast Asia. The fund is deemed of the highest value in Southeast Asia, even beating both Golden Gate Ventures (US$ 50 million) and Jungle Ventures (US$ 100 million). Venturra Capital is the reincarnation of Lippo’s then venture capital arm, Lippo Digital Ventures (LDV), under Rudy Ramawy too. Venturra Capital, through LDV’s previous investment portfolio, injected capital into a number of popular start-ups such as GrabTaxi, Traveloka, HappyFresh, Bridestory, MatahariMall.com, and others.
Unintentionally Joined VC Company
Raditya is trusted the Investment Manager position in this giant VC for his previous experience as Associate in a venture capital organization, IMJ Investment Partners which affiliates with Japan’s IMJ Corporation, for around one and a half years. He joined IMJ Investment Partners Indonesia while he was still in his 6th semester in the Department of Business Information Systems, BINUS INTERNATIONAL. He admitted, at first, he had not the slightest idea about VC. He simply tried and found the way.
“It was in fact unintentional. When a venture capital (VC-red) hired me for an internship, I did not know about VC. I was simply referred by BINUS then. IMJ was looking for an intern at that time and I was one of the candidates BINUS referred. There were other students in the candidacy too, but I had an interview and was admitted at once. There I really started from scratch. That was a moment that obviously open up the horizon to me,” recounted Raditya, who was also rewarded the 2011 Dean’s List-BINUS UNIVERSITY INTERNATIONAL.
During his internship period in IMJ, Raditya was involved in the handling of as many as 21 firms company with satisfactory business performance set to receive capital injection. Deals he handled with satisfactory performance were Bukalapak, Urbanindo, Kudo, and several others. A special one included a deal in which Raditya himself was involved from its very beginning, Kudo deal. He had his own hands on right from the start of mapping analysis to legal affairs. “So, that’s why IMJ provided me a lot of learning. Although I was yet graduated then, I was given a huge trust. I’m very lucky,” said Raditya who was requested by IMJ to extend his previously 3-month internship period up to his graduation.
Focus and Devote to the Best
Currently in Venturra Capital, he focuses on learning deeper about investment in digital start-ups because the capital’s value he handles is much higher and the projects more complex than the ones he worked on in the previous VC company. In Raditya’s view, Venturra is very ambitious to develop its business. Raditya admitted that he was invited by John Riady himself to join his VC company. “Start-up is a small world. It is probably why I could be invited to join the company,” explained Raditya who was intensively active in various organizations while he was a student, for instance Kairos Society ASEAN, BINUS UNIVERSITY INTERNATIONAL’s Student Committee, AIESEC, and Young Leadership Indonesia-McKinsey.
Raditya never holds neither certain
ideals nor specific role model. He keeps this view unchanged in terms of his role in investment industry for digital start-ups. “For me it just makes sense, the world is going digital, technology is something. This industry is will grow great someday. So, whichever role that I’m gonna take in this industry, it’s gonna be good,” said Raditya.
When asked about his deams and passion, Raditya asserted that passion is bullshit. Only a small number of people do knowingly have certain passion in certain domain. He advised not to merely focus on one’s dreams, but to focus on the contributions a person can offer to his and her surrounding. “I think it’s very selfish if you only want to do what you want. Focus instead on what you can contribute to people, just do your best. It may not be the best job for you now, but somehow you will end up somewhere even better,” concluded Raditya.
