Company Stories
Ten years, one message at a time
Without an office, without a salary and with a borrowed laptop, two founders started PT Cakra Alpha Spektrum in South Jakarta on 18 November 2016. This is the story of CakraFlash's first ten years.
The phone in your pocket buzzes. A verification code arrives just as you need it. A reminder from the hospital about tomorrow's appointment. A note that your parcel is on its way. We rarely think about messages like these. We only notice them when they fail to arrive.
Behind every one of them is a route that someone has to build, look after and earn trust for. Ten years ago, two people decided to build those routes. They started without an office, without a salary and with a borrowed laptop.
18 November 2016: home, the road and a borrowed laptop
On 18 November 2016, in South Jakarta, Wahju Alianto Tedjo Sukmono and Muhamad Rifai founded PT Cakra Alpha Spektrum, the company that would become known as CakraFlash. Its business was A2P (application-to-person) messaging: the messages businesses and institutions send to the people they serve.
There was no office. The work was done from home and on the road, wherever there was a signal and a power socket. The laptop was borrowed from the child of one of the founders. The phone was a cheap one, bought by the wife of one of the founders. For the first six months there was no salary at all. To get by, the founders drew on their Jamsostek social security savings.
This is a field with no room for "almost". A verification code that arrives a minute late might as well not arrive at all. From the first day, the measure of success was clear and not up for negotiation: the message has to arrive, on time, every time.
A name chosen on purpose
The name Cakra comes from a weapon of the wayang tradition. In Hindu mythology, the Sudarshana Chakra is the disc-shaped weapon of the god Vishnu, also wielded by Krishna in the Mahabharata. In Javanese wayang, the Cakra is known as Krishna's heirloom weapon. It is described as spinning, sharp-edged and able to reach its target with great speed.
Flash is a burst of light: speed in delivering information, the energy that sets things in motion, an impact felt in moments, and the clarity that makes things visible. Cakra stands for the power of precision, Flash for the speed of possibility. Together they describe technology that moves with purpose: Power with Precision. Speed with Purpose.
The company's name carries meaning too. Cakra describes the strength it has. Alpha describes the position it aims for. Spektrum describes the impact it wants to make. Strength to Lead. Vision to Excel. Impact Beyond Boundaries.
A first customer they never met
From the start, CakraFlash's market was international, and that was a deliberate choice. At home, a new company with no reputation would struggle to be trusted. Abroad, CakraFlash had something its competitors in Indonesia did not: the type of connection it offered, and a support team that was there when customers needed it.
Its first customer came from India. They never met in person; they knew each other only online. Yet the customer trusted them, and paid 5,000 US dollars in advance.
For a company with no office, whose founders were not yet drawing a salary, that trust meant everything. And it was kept, message by message, until the same customer was topping up 10,000 US dollars every month.
Official partner of Indosat
Just a year after it was founded, that hard work opened a bigger door. In November 2017, CakraFlash was appointed an official partner of Indosat, a role it held until November 2019.
That contract became the turning point. From there, CakraFlash grew rapidly.
2018: a first office, and Barcelona
After more than a year of working from home and on the road, in early 2018 the CakraFlash team finally had a place to gather: a rented office. It was small, but for the first time they had an address of their own.
That same year, the team travelled to MWC Barcelona, one of the world's largest gatherings of the mobile industry, to meet their clients, including clients from India who had placed their trust in CakraFlash.
It was there, in Barcelona, that they finally met their first customer face to face. Two years earlier, a stranger they knew only online had paid 5,000 US dollars in advance to a company with no office. Now they shook hands for the first time.
2019: coming home
After three years of serving customers abroad, in 2019 CakraFlash entered the domestic market. The experience gained internationally came home to serve businesses in Indonesia.
2021: recognition
In 2021, CakraFlash was named a winner of the SME 100 Awards as one of the "Fast Moving Companies in Asia", an award for companies that grew rapidly within a single year. For a company whose work mostly happens out of sight, it was a sign that it was on the right path.
The hardest chapter: from SMS to WhatsApp
Not every chapter of the journey was easy. The hardest came when the way people message changed. Business conversations moved from SMS to WhatsApp, and a business built on SMS had to learn again: its technology, its ways of working and the way it served customers.
CakraFlash did not stop at one product. The experience gathered since 2016 went into specialized platforms, each with its own identity and website:
- AirMobile (2016) for enterprise SMS, A2P and OTP messaging, and voice.
- Flashmail (2024) for business email communication.
- Beeoneten (2025) for business messaging and customer conversations.
- Tokenexia (2026) for access to multiple AI models through one gateway, currently in beta.
2024: a building of its own
From no office, to a rented one, in 2024 CakraFlash moved into its own building at Northbridge Business Center in BSD. Eight years after working from home and on the road, the address was finally its own.
Ten years on
Today those messages are still moving every second: a code that arrives on time, a conversation that feels personal, an email that lands in the right inbox. Most of the people who receive them will never notice. That is exactly how good technology should work.
Ten years of growth, challenges, and achievements have shaped CakraFlash into who we are today. Looking back on this remarkable journey, I am deeply grateful to our team, customers, and business partners who have been part of our story since 2016.
As we enter our next decade, we remain committed to innovation, technological advancement, and building meaningful connections. Yet, our ambition goes beyond business success.
We aspire to make CakraFlash a company that actively contributes to society and creates a positive, lasting impact on people's lives. We believe that true success is measured not only by how far we grow, but also by how much good we bring to the world around us.
Thank you for being part of our journey. Together, let us continue building a future driven by innovation, purpose, and meaningful impact. Happy 10th Anniversary, CakraFlash! The best is yet to come.
— Wahju Alianto Tedjo Sukmono, Chief Executive Officer, CakraFlash
A decade full of struggle, challenges and achievements. Thank you to the whole team, our customers and our partners for being part of this remarkable journey.
With a spirit that never fades, we keep moving faster, going further and creating a bigger impact. Happy 10th birthday, CakraFlash! The best is yet to come.
— Muhamad Rifai, Founder, CakraFlash
What has changed in ten years is the scale and the range of the technology. What has not changed is the belief held since the first day, at home and on the roads of South Jakarta: messages that matter have to arrive. The first ten years are only the beginning.
