After receiving seed funding from East Ventures in May 2019, the Chinese-language media based on Singapore, 7.5 Degree, plans to expand to Indonesia. It started from opening a branch office and placing team for media coverage in Indonesia. They’re focused on the startup industry, such as e-commerce, fintech, SaaS, and gaming in Indonesia for their users in China.

7.5 Degree’s CEO, Li Yufu said to DailySocial that the expansion to Indonesia is expected to bring relevant information while bridging business owners and investors from China to expand their business in Indonesia.

“We create opportunities through media focused on presenting relevant information for China’s readers. It’s for them to gain information on the startup and related industries in Indonesia.”

Officially launched in 2017, the 7.5 Degree has distributed articles through various channels. Currently, they’ve produced 350 articles in Chinese, discussing all things related to the internet economy in Southeast Asia.

“In accordance with our mission of implementing ‘One Belt One Road’, we want to make Indonesia one of the countries to explore in terms of expanding relations and opening networks with China,” he added.

Focused on helping China-based business players and investors

7.5 Degree has another consulting service for business players from China who want to expand their business in Indonesia. Especially for Chinese speakers.

Through this service, 7.5 Degree intends to bring more Chinese investors to Indonesia. Currently, they claim to have had several clients from China to Thailand using their consulting services.

“In terms of media, we’re not using too much advertising for monetizing. The strategy is fully on consulting services,” Yufu said.

They have also launched Invmall, a new service that aims to encourage interaction between technology businesses in Southeast Asia and China. The platform presents a “bridging” service that allows startup founders to directly connect with investors from China (or vice versa) via email or WhatsApp.

There are very few service providers capable to support the local startups in early-stage to get funding. If we can help entrepreneurs to get seed funding from investors, both from China and Southeast Asia, this will be huge opportunities for them to grow and develop.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian