Achmad Zaky

In 1997, Zaky started from a computer which was given by his uncle and a bunch of programming books, he grew up learning computer and programming sciences.[2]

While attending high school at Public High School 1 Solo, he got an opportunity to represent his school in the National Science Olympic event, for the field of computer science, and managed to become the champion at national level.

In 2004, he continued his study in Informatics Engineering at Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). In academics, he achieved a 4.00 GPA during his first year in ITB.[3]

Aside from academic activities, he also founded some student organizations in ITB. He was one of the founders of the Entrepreneur Club ITB, which is now known as Technoentrepreneur Club (TEC ITB). He was also active in the Amateur Radio Club (ARC) ITB.

Throughout his study in ITB, he had won several national competitions, one of them was being in the 2nd place at Indosat Wireless Innovation Contest in 2007. He created a software called MobiSurveyor. This software was used to do a quick count in a survey. Zaky also won Merit Award at the INAICTA competition (Indonesia ICT Awards) in 2008.

He also received a scholarship from the Oregon State University for two months in 2008. He also represented ITB at the Harvard National Model United Nations event in 2009.

Bukalapak was founded by Achmad Zaky in early 2010

Zaky began his career and activity in technology and entrepreneurship worlds when he was studying at ITB. He was offered a project to make a quickcount software for the national election, with a value of 1.5 million Rupiah, for a national television station.[3] After graduating from ITB, he founded a technology consulting firm named Suitmedia.[2][4]

He had also tried making a culinary business in making noodles, during his undergraduate study, which in the end led to bankruptcy. Zaky spent all of his money from winning various competitions.[5]

At that time, we all infected by the entrepreneurship virus. While hanging out with friends, all of a sudden, I had an idea to make a noodle stall. The money that I earned from competitions, all of it were spent towards that business, but then in the end it led to bankruptcy. I feel traumatized and scared due to the failure, but then I thought that this is like school, the cost is expensive, I believe there is a valuable lesson here[3]

With experience making an IT system for some companies, Zaky thought of making something more useful for a lot of people. From here, Bukalapak.com was founded in 2010.[6]

In 2011, around 10,000 sellers have joined Bukalapak.

Bukalapak's vast growth has gained investors' interest to invest in it. Among them are 500 Startups, Batavia Incubator, IMJ Investment, and Elang Mahkota Teknologi Tbk (EMTEK Group).[1][2]