Jakarta, 14 July 2017 – Telkomsel is organizing The NextDev Academy, a program to sharpen the quality of apps created by the The NextDev 2015 and 2016 finalists. By participating in the academy that took place from July to October 2017, the NextDev finalists will gain useful insights, so they can develop their applications more effectively, build relationship with the developer community.

As one of the countries with the largest economic power in Asia, Indonesia is the largest digital market in Southeast Asia (the number of transactions in Indonesia’s digital market increased by 40% every year). However, many startups are not ready to take advantage of this potential, due to insufficient capacity constraints, lack of access to government and businesses, the difficulty of obtaining facilities and digital platforms, and a lack of knowledge of international benchmarks.

As a company in Indonesia that provides a platform for young Indonesians to develop applications that have a social impact for Indonesian people, Telkomsel seeks to overcome these challenges through The NextDev Academy.

President Director of Telkomsel Ririek Adriansyah said, "The NextDev Academy is aimed at improving the scalability of social technopreneurs through self-development and enhancement in research and customer development, design sprint, branding, product development and business model and bootstrapping. We are inviting young Indonesians to move together through ideas and innovations to benefit society's lives. "

In The NextDev Academy, participants will gain comprehensive knowledge and information on tech startup to improve the quality of the apps they create and how to build the business in the near future. In addition, participants will also learn more in-depth skills to produce a ready-to-market product planning strategy.

The 32 teams of The NextDev Academy will go through the stages of Assessment, Engagement, Enhancement, Establishment, and Inauguration. After passing the various stages, two selected evangelists will get rewards in the form of networking, publicity, virtual office, and seed money.

The participants of The NextDev Academy will be guided by several mentors who have expertise in design, market trends, pitching, and funding. These experts come from various industry categories, such as fashion, transportation, agriculture, education, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), tourism, and waste management. In this program, Telkomsel collaborates with Telkom Group to give participants a direct access to Telkom digital lounge, the center of local startup development of Indonesia. In addition, participants will get mentoring from professio nals at Telkom Group who have experience in developing international startup.

NextDev Competition 2017

In addition to The NextDev Academy, Telkomsel once again launch NextDev competition, an event for startups and digital app developers. This program has captured more than 1,400 applications from all over Indonesia, and is part of Telkomsel's efforts to encourage young Indonesians to compete in the digital age.The NextDev 2017 challenges young people to create apps that provide a positive social impact to support the development of digital ecosystems in Indonesia.

"We want to accommodate the potential of young people who use technology appropriately to create apps that is capable of solving problems in society. The NextDev is here to encourage the positive contribution from young generation", said Ririek.

Meanwhile, Indonesia’s Minister of Communications and Informatics Rudiantara expressed his wish for The NextDev. "Digital-based solutions will address the technical and bureaucratic obstacles that are commonly encountered when solving a problem. We appreciate Telkomsel's efforts through The NextDev so that young apps creators have the opportunity to deliver the real solutions that we need. We expect collaborations with various Stakeholders are strengthened so that solutions for Smart City and Smart Rural can be more quickly realized.”

The NextDev 2017 focuses on a fundamental issue on Indonesia's digital development, which is the ecosystem that supports the lives of Indonesians, both urban and rural. In The NextDev 2017 competition, the categories that can be chosen by the participants reflect the various areas that directly touch aspects of community life, including health, education, agriculture, and transportation.

The best teams from each category will get exciting prizes called 7M, which consists of Market Access, Marketing (publicity), Mentoring (Training and Assistance), Management Trip (Study visit to telecom industry players abroad), Money (cash), Monetizing (great opportunity to earn revenue through collaboration with related stakeholders), and Match Expert (professional recruitment according to the need for business startup growth).

Any Indonesian Citizen (WNI) aged 18 to 30 years can join The NextDev competition. Participants may register individually or in teams (maximum three persons). Registration can be done through thenextdev.id website (open from July 15, 2017).