Jakarta, Indonesia, September 8th, 2021 – The Indonesian game industry celebrated the introduction of a new funding initiative last week on September 1st, 2021. Launched by one of the industry’s progenitors, the Agate Skylab Fund by P.T. Agate International would provide a much-needed injection of funds into the region and its fledgling game development scene.
The program will fill the void in Indonesia’s game industry for later-stage funding by providing funding structures starting at US$100,000 through to US$1,000,000. Announced to a core audience of media and local industry leaders, the initiative has begun to receive submissions sooner than expected and will begin its curation process in the coming months.
The Agate Skylab Fund was launched in a virtual press conference held on Wednesday, September 1st, 2021. The speaker line-up included Arief Widhiyasa as CEO of Agate, Igor Tanzil as CMO and CCO of Agate, and Hari Sungkari as one of Agate’s advisory board members. Dozens of media and game developers attended the event, including several veteran figures from the Indonesian game industry.
At the beginning of the press conference, Hari Sungkari was officially introduced as Agate’s advisory board member. Hari is an activist in the Indonesian video game industry who actively supported the development of the video game industry during his tenure at Barekraf and the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy through various programs such as the Game Prime event, the largest video game exhibition in Indonesia.
Hari Sungkari is committed to continue his support of the local video game industry with Agate through various initiatives; Agate Skylab Fund is one such program which he developed alongside the Agate management. He also welcomed the efforts of Indonesian game developers who are getting increasingly recognized for their work in the global arena.
“Indonesia ranks 16th in the world for the game industry, which in 2020 has reached USD 1.6 billion in value. The challenge is to increase the local game market share very significantly by managing the game industry ecosystem, starting from talent, design, development, funding then monetization and growth and sustainability,” said Hari Sungkari regarding the current condition of the Indonesian game industry.
The Agate Skylab Fund itself is another step from Agate to push the growth of the Indonesian video game industry to the next stage, through advanced funding. Arief Widhiyasa gave the following statement regarding the role of the Agate Skylab Fund:
“In recent years the game funding ecosystem has grown significantly. Telkom through the Indigo and MDI programs has provided incubation, early-stage funding and growth of up to 2.8 billion rupiah, there are also programs from other industry friends and the government through BIP (Governmental Incentive Assistance). We hope that the Agate Skylab Fund can be a follow-up funding program for friends who want to grow faster and need additional capital. The big goal is to become a global game industry together \(^ ^)/”
Igor Tanzil also explained further about the Agate Skylab Fund concept as follows:
“No single company can change an industry alone. We don’t want to just give away funds and leave the developers to face the market on their own. In addition to providing funding, Agate will also provide guidance from veteran Agate crew and leaders in their fields so that we can walk side by side towards a common goal.”
Developers interested in getting funding through Agate Skylab Fund can submit their proposals through the program’s website (https://agate.id/skylab/) to go through the assessment process held by the Skylab committee. In addition to receiving funding between US$100,000 to US$1,000,000, successful submissions will receive support in the form of mentoring, networking, and collaboration with Agate.
With the successful launch and the widespread interest in the program, Agate leaders Arief and Igor have begun to discuss plans to expand the program to the rest of the region.
