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When we started Fluro in Melbourne, Indonesia wasn't the obvious next market. Most Australian startups looking offshore go north to Asia's tech capitals or east to the US.
We went to Bali.
Three years on, that decision has shaped Fluro more than almost any other. Indonesia is no longer a side bet for us. It's central to where the company is going.
Why Indonesia Made Sense
The first version of the case was simple. Bali sees millions of Australian visitors a year. Many of those visitors already use Fluro at home. Putting our network in front of them when they travel meant continuity for the patron and a competitive advantage for the venue.
That was the version we started with. The version we're building now is bigger.
Indonesia has a young, mobile-first population, a hospitality scene growing faster than any in the region, and a domestic patron base that uses phones for everything from ride-hailing to QR-code menus to digital wallets. The dependency on a charged phone in Jakarta or Surabaya is just as high as it is in Sydney or Melbourne. Often higher.
The opportunity isn't tourism. The opportunity is infrastructure for a country of 280 million people moving through their daily lives on phones that need to stay alive.
What Our Indonesia Network Looks Like Now
Our Indonesian network started in Bali, and Bali is still the centre of it. Beach clubs, restaurants, bars, cafes, hotels - the venues that define how international visitors and locals experience the island. Old Man's, Canggu's main strips, Seminyak hospitality. Stations placed exactly where patrons need them.
What's changed in the last 12 months is the spread. We've moved from a Bali-only network to a network with venues across multiple Indonesian regions, with Jakarta now firmly in our sights for the next phase.
The local team is what's made this possible. Indonesia isn't a market you can run from Melbourne. The relationships, the operational pace, the cultural knowledge - all of it has to be local. Our team in-country handles installation, restocking, venue partnership, and support, with the same standard we set for Australian venues.
The Malu Dong Partnership
When we launched in Bali, we wanted the network to give back to the place that hosted it. Bali's beauty is also its vulnerability - the island's waterways, beaches, and ecosystems are under sustained pressure from waste, runoff, and development.
Malu Dong is the largest community-run clean-up program on the island. They focus on protecting and restoring Bali's local waterways through clean-ups and education campaigns. Their work is ongoing, hands-on, and unsexy in the best sense - the kind of program that doesn't get headlines but does the actual work.
Fluro funds their environmental programs as part of our Indonesian operations. It's not a marketing line. It's a fixed part of how we run the network there.
We make money from the patrons and venues that use Fluro in Bali. A portion of that goes back to the island that makes it possible.
What We're Building Toward
The next 12 months in Indonesia are about three things.
Jakarta. The largest hospitality and entertainment market in the country. Our station rollout there starts shortly, with venue partnerships already in motion across the city's bar, restaurant, and nightlife scene.
Network depth in Bali. More stations in more venues, including expansion into Ubud, Uluwatu, and the north of the island. Density matters - the more stations we have, the more useful the network is for everyone in it.
Cross-border continuity. A patron who picks up a Fluro power bank in Sydney should be able to return it in Jakarta. We're already seeing that happen between Australia and Bali. The systems, the brand, and the patron experience need to be identical across both sides of the network.
Why This Matters for the Whole Network
Building in Indonesia hasn't just been good for Indonesia. It's made the whole Fluro network better.
The cross-border return functionality, the patron familiarity that comes from a brand operating internationally, the operational learning that comes from running infrastructure in two very different markets - all of it feeds back into how we run the Australian network.
A venue in regional Victoria benefits from the fact that Fluro is also operating in Canggu, even if no patron from one ever visits the other. The brand is bigger. The network is more credible. The technology is more battle-tested.
That's what international expansion does when it's done right. It strengthens everything you've already built.
Coming With Us
If you run a venue in Indonesia - Bali, Jakarta, or beyond - and you're interested in being part of the network, we'd love to hear from you. The model is the same as what we offer in Australia. Zero cost to the venue. Full-service operation. A growing patron base that already knows the brand.
Indonesia isn't an experiment for Fluro. It's a core market. And we're just getting started.