Indonesia's Financial Services Authority (OJK) is strengthening its startup acceleration programs to encourage trusted, sustainable, and globally competitive financial sector innovation while accelerating the country's digital economy (23/07).

The initiative was announced by OJK Executive Head for Financial Sector Technology Innovation, Digital Financial Assets, and Crypto Assets Supervision Adi Budiarso during the Focus Group Discussion (FGD) titled "Accelerating the Next Generation of Innovators" at OJK Innovation Center (OJK Infinity) in Jakarta.

OJK Encourages Innovation Through Strong Collaboration

Adi said OJK is encouraging startups to pursue not only business growth but also solutions that create added value for society and the national economy. He said innovation should deliver tangible benefits and be supported by close collaboration among stakeholders.

"OJK wants Indonesia to become a center of excellence for digital finance and digital economy. To achieve this, we must build strong collaboration between regulators, industry, government, academia, investors, and innovators within one ecosystem that can create value for the national economy," Adi said.

He said Indonesia has significant potential to become one of the world's leading digital economy players because of its large domestic market, creative digital talent, and growing innovation ecosystem.

"In the digital economy, trust is the ultimate currency. Therefore, innovation must not only excel in technology but also be able to build public trust," Adi said.

Adi also said OJK's efforts to promote financial sector innovation are in line with Law No. 4 of 2023 on Financial Sector Development and Strengthening (P2SK Law), as amended by Law No. 4 of 2026.

He said OJK is responsible not only for regulation, supervision, and consumer protection, but also for supporting the development of the financial services sector to contribute more to Indonesia's economic growth.

At the same event, Director General of Digital Ecosystem at the Ministry of Communication and Digital Edwin Hidayat Abdullah said digital transformation and adaptation to new technology are essential to improve Indonesia's productivity and global competitiveness.

"If we want to move forward, we have no choice but to transform and adapt to new technologies. In the future, the economy will increasingly be driven by data exchange, making digital technology an important foundation for Indonesia's competitiveness," Edwin said.

OJK Launches Two Startup Accelerator Programs

As part of the development of OJK Infinity, OJK is organizing two accelerator programs in 2026 as part of an innovation pipeline covering the idea stage, acceleration, regulatory sandbox, and implementation.

The first program, OJK Fintech Startup Accelerator, is conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Communication and Digital. It focuses on startups developing financial technology innovations, including artificial intelligence, fraud detection, embedded finance, real-world asset tokenization, digital cooperative platforms, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) platforms, and other financial technology solutions.

The second program, OJK Infinity Accelerator, is organized with the Ministry of Creative Economy. It focuses on intellectual property-based innovation, including intellectual property tokenization, Web3, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), digital licensing, and intellectual property-based financing to support Indonesia's creative economy.

Participants Enter Intensive Mentoring Stage

Participants in both accelerator programs receive support through business diagnosis, market validation, product strategy, financial modelling, regulatory clinics, and mentoring. OJK said all participants have now entered the intensive mentoring stage in preparation for Demo Day.

The FGD was held as part of the accelerator programs to bring together participating startups with regulators, investors, associations, academics, and industry practitioners to exchange perspectives on strategies for building sustainable and impactful companies.

The forum featured Leontinus Alpha Edison, Deputy for Community Economic Empowerment and Migrant Worker Protection Coordination at the Coordinating Ministry for Community Empowerment and former Tokopedia Co-Founder; Vikra Ijas, Chief Executive Officer of Kitabisa and Secretary General of the Indonesian Sharia Fintech Association; Wasis Gunarto, Chief Executive Officer of Kopitiam Oey and Head of Blockchain at the Indonesian Blockchain Association; and Irsan Ramzee, BlockDevId Representative and BitGo APAC.

OJK Expects More Trusted Digital Financial Innovation

Through the accelerator programs and collaboration forum, OJK expects more digital financial services innovations to grow with good governance, compliance with applicable regulations, and tangible benefits for society and the national economy.

OJK also expects stronger collaboration among regulators, industry, academics, investors, and government institutions to become the foundation for creating Indonesian startups with global competitiveness.

PHOTO: OJK

This article was created with AI assistance.

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