Fashion
The home improvement market in Indonesia was worth about US$3 billion at last count, back in 2013. Rasmus Rasmussen, co-founder and CEO of Jakarta-based startup Balkonie, believes you can double that number if you include the home furnishing market. The Danish entrepreneur, who now lives in Indonesia, reckons tech-enabled home design services represent a US$1 billion opportunity this year
“Balkonie is a free online platform that allows homeowners to get inspired by and connect with interior designers, architects, contractors, and other home service professionals across Indonesia,” explains Rasmussen. “We are launching our platform to help the Indonesian people, by making the process of building, renovating, and general home improvement much simpler […] and cheaper online.”
Rasmussen is well-travelled. He studied business administration and economics at Harvard and the University of Southern Denmark. He then earned his postgraduate degree in international business from Hult International Business School, jumping around to different campuses in London, San Francisco, and Shanghai. It was this travel experience which got him interested in Southeast Asia.
“During and after my studies, I founded and worked with several startups in industries ranging from goods trading and accounting to the Muslim and halal industry. Some startups failed and others succeeded, and they all gave me invaluable experience,” recalls Rasmussen. “I initially took a job at a venture builder in Malaysia, but was quickly drawn back to the startup scene.” Rasmussen is also the managing partner at Gomo Global, an international trade and development firm aiming to bridge Northern Europe and Southeast Asia’s business worlds.
Coming from Denmark, Rasmussen says he’s used to finding everything online. “Of course, I didn’t expect everything to be online in Indonesia, but I expected to find help for basic necessities like home inspiration and professionals online.” However, Rasmussen found this wasn’t the case. He ran into troubles when trying to help his Indonesian fiancé’s family design and build a house. He says:
In Indonesia we rely on buying home design magazines and going to exhibitions to find inspiration and home professionals […] Finding contact details online and getting recommendations from previous customers is nearly impossible. So, I set out to change that with three Indonesian partners.
Balkonie is pretty simple. Users can go onto the site and login with social media. From there, they can peruse all the interior “design porn” pics until they find a style they like. Each image has the designer or company responsible attached to the photo. Users arrive at the designer’s Balkonie profile page when they decide they want to know more, and from there can contact the vendor directly to strike a deal.
According to the team, Balkonie is something like the Pinterest of home design combined with a directory of industry professionals who are also the site’s contributors. Rasmussen likens the concept to that of US-based startup Houzz. For monetization, Rasmussen also hopes to replicate the success of Houzz, which makes money from ad revenue, premium listings, and ecommerce commissions. However, he says right now Balkonie is only focusing on building the site’s traffic and user base. Money will have to wait until later.
The site launched in beta in July. Because Balkonie is still brand new, not a whole lot can be reasonably expected in terms of market traction. However, Rasmussen says Balkonie has already gained several thousand users. He adds that the site has received hundreds of signups, with users continuously improving their profiles and uploading projects.
Balkonie’s business model puts it in a unique position in Indonesia. Rasmussen says potential competitors such as Rooang are geared more toward being purely media, while startups like Fabelio and Livaza are focusing on furniture ecommerce only.
Currently, Balkonie is a completely bootstrapped startup. Rasmussen says he is looking to raise funds, but before he starts banging on the doors of VCs in Jakarta, he wants to gain more validation for his product.
“We see that the growth of middle class and affluent households in the country is very encouraging to support our vertical,” explains Rasmussen. “We first wanted to test our hypothesis that the market is ready for this service, rather than wasting everyone’s time and money.”
