More than half of the population in Southeast Asia is under the age of 30, making it a desirable market for new technologies. Unsurprisingly, several countries in the region, such as Singapore and Vietnam, have some of the highest crypto adoption rates in the world.
While Indonesia is not the most active crypto in the region – the total amount of crypto received was less than half that of Thailand from July 2021 to June 2022, according to Chainalysis – Thanks to a young and large (270 million) population, the country is considered to have great potential for Web3 adoption. Active web 2.0 industry.
Indonesia is “catching up” on Web 3 because its large talent pool still rests in the Web 2.0 industry, a crypto investor previously suggested.
But entrepreneurs are working to bring blockchain applications to multicultural islands. In June, Pintu raised $113 million in funding to provide cryptocurrency trading services to Indonesians. Now a startup called Sermorphius is hoping to connect brands and consumers through digital assets.
Digital assets in the form of immutable tokens can be used to prove ownership. For example, NFTs can ensure you can get discounts on specific content, corporate memberships, or deals.
Indonesians are big users of social media content. A lot of intellectual property is being created, but innovation is less exposed when it comes to Web 3,” said Kenneth Talley, founder of Sermorphius. “Why not a lot of money coming in with crypto? [web3] Is innovation leaving Indonesia? “
Part of the problem, he argues, is the technical hoops inventors must jump to create smart contracts. They must address multiple platforms and manage relationships with each. On the consumer side, users are already stuck in the process of setting up a wallet and worry about losing their private keys.
Likewise, SerMorpheus recently closed a $2.5 million seed round to create a user-friendly platform for businesses to create NFTs. End users, on the other hand, can buy and trade digital assets on the platform in the local currency, rupiah. So far, about 27,000 people have used the service to request tickets for music events, exclusive celebrity fan benefits, memberships to football clubs and more, the founder said.
The platform still supports businesses and brands – including 25 Indonesia Comic-Con so far – but the next step is to automate the creation of Sermorphius’ Facebook page. To do this, smart contracts, or lines of code that execute on pre-defined rules, will become standardized, as will the types of benefits that creators offer to their end users.
The startup takes a 5-10% cut from NFTs traded on the platform and charges a 2% fee on secondary sales.
The seed round was led by Intudo Ventures, with participation from 500 Global, Febe Ventures, AlphaLab Capital, BRI Ventures and Caballeros Capital. With a team of 30 people, Sermorphius plans to employ the new capital in building the infrastructure and all operations.
