PT Bhumi Varta Technology (BVT) has announced that ex Viva Networks CTO Jullian Gafar will join as their new Chief Executive Officer. Viva Networks is one of the largest news networks in Indonesia and Viva’s tvOne and ANTV are two of the largest television channels.
BVT, an Indonesian and Asian Leader in Geospatial software has continued to grow rapidly during this year’s pandemic, and now is the time to bring in proven senior management, according to President Director and Investor Martyn Terpilowski. He believes Mr. Gafar, who also held the position as VP of Digital Strategy and Initiatives across the Viva Group of Companies, is the right man to take BVT to the next level. Martyn said “Jullian and myself have talked several times and I am extremely happy he has agreed to join our journey. He clearly shares my vision and is hugely optimistic about the great potential of the Geospatial business in the coming years and we are certainly at the forefront of that in Indonesia”.
Mr. Gafar brings extensive technical and business experience, coming from both the startup as well as the enterprise world, and stated, “I am very excited to join the BVT team. I believe BVT is the clear leader in geospatial services in Indonesia and together we will make BVT a powerhouse.
BVT maps all types of big data and uses machine learning for predictive analytics to help all types of businesses make better decisions. Their different modules can help with site selection, market planning, logistics, neighborhood profiling, and many other things. Their data includes over 2m Points of Interest (POI’s) in Indonesia, 30 sets of thematic data (demography, etc), and data from 138m mobile devices, showing people traffic and further behavioral data.
BVT also produces its very own Indonesian map LokasiMaps for API routing and Dheket, an application based on geofencing aimed at helping provide effective advertising to the large SME community.
Martyn also added “I think it is an absolute credit to the efforts of my team, how far we have come in 2 years and to have people like Jullian who have worked for some of the biggest companies in Indonesia as a senior level, now choosing to join us. There will also be two further major hirings in the next few weeks, to complete our excellent management team”
BVT which was founded in October 2018 by Benny Emor, David Pandjaitan, and Mr. Terpilowski, currently has a team of 70 and expects the numbers to increase significantly in the coming months as demand for their products increases from the Government and the private sector.
Their office is in BSD, Tangerang and they remain funded mainly by their founders, rather than VC investment. They do however have investment from Arya Setiadharma of Prasetia Dwidharma and Felix Setyomulyono of Azure Ventures. Last month renowned Asian Investment banker Trevor Harrison joined the board also. Mr. Harrison had previously worked closely with Mr. Terpilowski in Hong Kong.
“Our aim has always been to make a world-class Indonesian deep tech Geospatial product and we are doing great. Bringing in world-class talent can only help achieve that quicker” Martyn concluded.
