Vinson Keefe Anggasaputro: From trading virtual furniture to building a hotel

BUBBLE TEA, VIRTUAL REALITY ARCADE gaming, a non-fungible token (NFT) gallery and even a puppy business.

At 32, Vinson Keefe Anggasaputro has already tried his hand at variety of entrepreneurial pursuits. But his latest venture is his biggest yet – the new 128-room Varel Singapore, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel, which he built on the site of the former Selegie Centre.

Of course, it could all have been a very different story had he remained in Indonesia, where he was born. But as fate would have it, he was sent to live with his grandparents in Singapore during the 1998 crisis in the archipelago – when the nation was in the throes of massive riots triggered by the Asian financial crisis.

Doing the hustle

As a boy, school wasn’t a great experience for Anggasaputro, who was found to be deaf in one ear. This explained why he had difficulty focusing, tired easily and struggled with group learning. It also meant he had to put extra effort into covering the same amount of material as other students.

Meanwhile, his parents shuttled between the Lion City and Surabaya, where his father founded and built his business into leading adhesive tape manufacturing group Nachindo.

And it is from him that Anggasaputro picked up invaluable tips, including the importance of balancing “pattern recognition” with a disruptor mindset.

“Humans are built to recognise patterns and stay consistent,” explains the business and marketing graduate. “But sometimes, we have to disrupt that by thinking out of the box, to be ready for opportunities. So I learnt from my father to be very adaptable and daring enough to try new things.”

Indeed, at just 13, Anggasaputro showed he could hustle – making money by trading virtual furniture and creating online competitions in Habbo Hotel, an online multiplayer game. As an adult, he introduced Taiwan’s popular The Alley bubble tea brand here and grew it before selling it off for a seven-figure sum in 2021.

The dog lover also started Puppy Kingdom, which brought in ethically bred teacup puppies. “It was hard work,” says Anggasaputro, who ran the business for about three years with his then girlfriend and now wife. 

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Still, he fondly recalls personally cleaning the cages and picking the animals up when they arrived in Singapore. “It had a very good run and was quite profitable, and we’re happy we put smiles on customers’ faces.” The couple closed the business when they got married earlier this year.

However, not all his ventures were successful. He opened virtual reality arcade gaming hub New World Carnival but encountered “many challenges we did not foresee”. These included difficulty procuring regulatory approval for gaming equipment, as well as social distancing rules when the Covid pandemic hit.

The Singapore permanent resident also launched an NFT gallery and tinkered with user-generated game content with his metaverse project, Voxygon. “The ideas were fantastic, but when we looked at the technical side of things, there were many challenges and the skill sets needed were not available then.”

But he displays remarkable equanimity, betraying no hint of regret that these ventures didn’t take off. “I always fill my time with businesses to try because I want to learn as much as I can.”

A gutsy move

Varel, however, is a completely different story.

Anggasaputro’s father had always wanted to diversify into the hospitality industry and was looking to start in Surabaya. But Anggasaputro thought otherwise. He ran some numbers and convinced his father to go for a freehold property in Singapore instead.

So when Selegie Centre, located at the junction of Selegie and Mackenzie roads, became available on its third en bloc sale attempt in 2019, Anggasaputro grabbed it. The S$120 million purchase was a huge risk.

He’d heard that a few developers had previously failed to get the site rezoned from commercial and residential to hotel use. Indeed, his first application for change of use was also turned down by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).

But he persisted, following his gut and his architect’s advice that transforming the site into a green, open-concept hotel could do the trick. That paid off, with the URA eventually allowing the site for hotel use.

Meanwhile, Anggasaputro saw an opportunity for vertical integration – instead of just renting out rooms, he wanted to own the hotel’s F&B supply chain as well.

So three years ago, he acquired Grange Collective, under which are Hathaway, a cross-cultural dining concept offering South-east Asian food; Vernacular Coffee with its speciality brews; Bread Yard cafe; and Granary Bakehouse, a bread and pastries manufacturer.

Today, Hathaway Autograph is Varel’s all-day dining restaurant, while Vernacular Coffee’s casual and inviting cafe on the street level is drawing the local community. The latter also supplies the hotel’s coffee beans, while Granary bakes its breads.

Hospitality ahead

Varel, which is a portmanteau of Anggasaputro’s and his parents’ names – Vinson, Andrie and Erlin –  opened on Apr 1. It is already running at a 70 to 80 per cent occupancy level, a strong rate for a new entrant. For that, Anggasaputro has Marriott International to thank. Tribute Portfolio is one of the brands under Marriott, the world’s largest hotel group.

“The hotel combines Marriott’s distribution platform, which has over 271 million members, with the individuality of an independent brand,” says Anggasaputro. “It’s about being meaningfully embedded in the neighbourhood.”

Indeed, individuality is an element Varel is keen to project. Surrounded by pre-war shophouses and Art Deco buildings, alongside late-night eateries, the newcomer is positioned as a design-led, premium boutique lifestyle hotel in an arts and cultural hub. Its design incorporates nostalgic objects and motifs, while its activities are focused on local and personalised experiences.

For instance, Varel works with local businesses, such as home-grown artisanal gelato brand Denzy Gelato. It also created bespoke scents and bathroom amenities using South-east Asian ingredients in collaboration with Maison21G, a French perfume atelier founded and headquartered in Singapore.

To introduce interested foreign guests to its heritage-rich locality, the hotel also conducts simple walks, such as to the nearby Tekka Centre and Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple. Varel is currently working with a local partner to conduct weekly activities, with announcements to come in July.

“I come into hospitality from a slightly different perspective,” says Anggasaputro. “What I try to bring is a combination of the disciplined, structured approach from my family’s manufacturing background and a more creative and contemporary design and brand-led style.”

Although his latest venture is less than a month old, the entrepreneur is already scouting for possible sites for his next hotel in Singapore. “The location will be somewhere quiet and serene because we’re exploring a wellness concept.”

Anggasaputro sees the Asian hospitality industry becoming more segmented and experience-driven. “There will always be a market for hotels that are merely places to stay in, but the new generation is more appreciative of boutique and lifestyle accommodations rather than standard luxury models. That’s why, in future, a hotel cannot be just another hotel.”

Photography: Darren Gabriel Leow Fashion direction: CK Grooming: Sophia Soh/The Suburbs Studio, using Dior Beauty Location: Varel Singapore, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel