Indonesian creative and digital agency Bubu has just underwent a management change which includes the creation of a new private equity firm Bubu Ventures. Founder and chairperson Shinta W. Dhanuwardoyo is back running the company as its CEO, taking over from Aria Witoelar who has left to pursue his political ambition.
The company has yet to make an official announcement but on Twitter and other dealings it has referred to Dhanuwardoyo as its new CEO. Due to her activities in various organizations and having several advisory roles, she brought on board Brata Rafly as the chief of operations at Bubu to oversee the company on a more regular basis.
Rafly most recently was the commercial director at Tiger Air Mandala. He is of course not a stranger to the digital and technology industries having previously held sales director positions at the Indonesian arms of Microsoft, Yahoo, and Intel. Speaking about the move back to digital and tech, Rafly told DailySocial that he can’t be more excited being back in the scene.
In the last few years, Dhanuwardoyo has forged relations with Silicon Valley companies ranging from the behemoths such as Google, ebay, and Facebook, venture firms such as 500 Startups, and even upstarts like Path, to further understand how the world of tech startups work and to develop business opportunities for both American and Indonesian technology/online companies.
Dhanuwardoyo’s experience and insights led to the creation of Bubu Ventures, which she leads also as CEO and drafted Rafly to her new company as the chief of operations as well. She admitted to DailySocial that currently Bubu Ventures is just her and Rafly but in the coming months it will be grown as a firm in its own right, operating separately from Bubu agency.
Bubu Ventures was created with the aim to bring Indonesian tech startups the connections and market opportunities through her network. Currently it is overseeing three unidentified startups with the goal of launching them internationally within the next year.
Many may remember that Dhanuwardoyo until recently was the managing partner at Nusantara Ventures which is backed by the Bakrie Group. “I’m still advising at Nusantara”, she said to DailySocial recently, “but from now on my main focus will be on running Bubu and Bubu Ventures”.
[Image credit @bubu_dotcom]