Jakarta, 27th October 2017 –  In celebration of The Youth Pledge Day, Telkomsel announces The NextDev 2017’s top 20 who will compete in the final. The twenty local startup finalists from various regions in Indonesia present innovative solutions that successfully outperformed the other 1,700 other participants that have registered in The NextDev 2017 competition from July to October 2017.

Vice President Corporate Communications of Telkomsel, Adita Irawata said, “In The Youth Pledge moment this year, we want to reaffirm The NextDev’s theme which is ‘Solution for The Nation’. The 20 finalist we announce today are young Indonesians who work and make use of technology to make positive social impacts in society.”

Adita further added that in the third year of The NextDev competition, there has been a very high enthusiasm from the youth to contribute for a better change through their works. The submissions this year are coming from a many locations ranging from West Aceh, Jakarta, Luwu in South Sulawesi, to Jayapura in Papua. As a broadband service provider to remote areas, Telkomsel sees this as a positive indicator that digital ecosystem is definitely growing well in Indonesia.

In determining the top 20, the judges have before assessed all submission which then leaving 100 best applications. The assessment then was based on five components, which are problem, solution, business model, readiness level and visualization. In problem components, participants are judged on the context of the social problem they want to solve, the solution component assessed linkage between application product/web as a solution with social impacts for the society presented, the business model component assessed business design to see the startup sustainability potential in the future, the readiness level component assessed the application level of readiness, while the visualization component assesses pitch deck and application prototype/web display.

The top 20 finalists are chosen by board of judges who are experienced practitioners and experts in line with The NextDev 2017 sub themes, which are agriculture, health, education, and transportation. This top 20 will then join mini bootcamp in November 19 where they will have UI/UX Technical workshop, Go To Market workshop, and Pitching Investment workshop. Afterwards, they will join the final selection stage, Final Pitching before the judges and Investor Meet Up where they will meet and interact with investors.

At the final selection stage,  four best startups will be selected as The NextDev 2017 winners and entitled for 7M grand prize, namely Market Access, Marketing (publicity), Mentoring (training and assistance), Management Trip (study visit to telco industry players overseas), Money, Monetizing (opportunity to earn revenue through collaboration with related stakeholders), and Match Expert (professional recruitment needed for startup business growth).

‘We sincerely hope that the Top 20 of The NextDev 2017 can be an inspirations for more Indonesian youth wherever they are. These are the young generations who are able to make their idea and imagination come true through the positive use of technology, to shape a better future for Indonesia.”