Angel Investor & Chairman of JAC Recruitment
As one of the most active angel impact investors in Indonesia, Mariko Asmara has set herself the mission to improve the livelihoods of marginalized children and youth. After spending 20 years hunting for senior talents with JAC Recruitment, she is now fully dedicated to mentoring social businesses that build human capital at the grassroots.
On the morning of 17 July 2009, a suicide bomber detonated at the JW Marriott, where Mariko was having a breakfast meeting with other business leaders. Mariko and 49 others were wounded. 9 people were killed. That was a life-changing moment for her. As the head of a successful recruitment firm, she suddenly realised that outside of the central business districts and high-powered business circles of foreign-graduate CEOs, pockets of poverty and poor education levels were becoming a breeding ground for terrorist violence in Indonesia. “I reflected on what I had done all those years. At this point, I could either go back to normal life, or try to bring a positive change in society”. She chose the second option.
For several years, Mariko engaged with various philanthropic organisations, but high-society fundraising events and charity dinners soon appeared too far away from the communities she intended to reach. “I wanted to create impact at the bottom-of-the-pyramid and I didn’t know how. But I thought grassroots change agents would”. In 2015, she stepped down as CEO at JAC Recruitment and embarked on her angel investing journey. Six months later, she made her first investment in an Indian women’s safety app and co-founded Ango Ventures, a venture capital firm. Today, her portfolio comprises 13 enterprises that have generated together 1,500 jobs across the sectors of healthcare, agriculture, microfinance and education.
The primary goal of Mariko’s impact investing is to provide quality life and education for underprivileged youth. Empowering the mothers who nurture the kids into adulthood, is for her the most effective way to guarantee them with a supportive learning environment. “When you reach the mothers, you increase the multiplier effect and the depth of your impact” she explains. To Mariko, impact angel investing is more about building a trusted relationship, than having good impact metrics. “I create impact by supporting small businesses beyond the hype and personally mentoring them, not by relying on an established set of tools”.
Half-japanese, Mariko has always been exposed to two different work cultures. Compared to Japan, she sees that women and men with similar qualifications, benefit from relatively equal opportunities and fair treatment when it comes to recruitment in Indonesia. The work environment is not yet well adapted for women returning to work after having children. This often costs enterprises their female talent. In the early 200s at JAC Recruitment Indonesia, headquartered in Japan, Mariko pioneered the implementation of a regulation to allow more flexible working hours and career evolutions for her female staff. This was a groundbreaking move for the rigid japanese corporate culture, but as it proved to curb the hemorrhage of women talent and the HQ eventually replicated her approach in other countries.
enterprises have to take the lead in building a parent friendly workplace, because changing prevalent gender social and cultural norms will take time. “Working women are expected to endorse and perform multiple roles: this puts increasing pressure on them as they climb the corporate ladder”. Throughout her career, Mariko noticed how women’s own high expectations inhibited their self-confidence to take on leadership positions and claim what they are entitled to. As a chairman and a business mentor, Mariko wants to bring more women to “get the dignity that they deserve”.
