The enabler: Pandu Sjahrir looks to ride Indonesia’s next tech wave 

PANDU Sjahrir was working in the United States about a decade ago when his uncle, Luhut Pandjaitan, rang him and asked him to return to Indonesia to manage his fast-growing coal company.

Pandjaitan is currently the Coordinating Minister of Maritime and Investment Affairs, and under Sjahrir’s leadership, that company – Toba Bara Sejahtra (TBS) – went public in 2012, raising US$75 million in what was then the largest coal-related initial public offering.

“I came back to Indonesia to work for my uncle, but I really wanted to go into investing,” the 43-year-old told The Business Times in a recent interview in Jakarta. “He told me to remain at TBS, so I started investing my own money in tech startups.”