Indonesian entrepreneur and cultural innovator Nancy Margried Panjaitan has spent nearly two decades helping artisans across the archipelago access markets, preserve traditional knowledge, and integrate digital tools into their craft. As the co-founder of Batik Fractal and Digital Tenun Nusantara, she has been instrumental in bringing Indonesia’s heritage textiles into the global creative economy. Her work has connected more than 5,000 artisans, digitised heritage patterns, and created sustainable livelihoods in communities often left behind by rapid technological change.
Nancy’s commitment to cultural preservation and technological empowerment took a transformative turn when she pursued a Chevening Scholarship to study Master of Science (MSc) in Technology Entrepreneurship at the University College London. The UK’s academic environment gave her the analytical skills, global exposure, and confidence to scale her work with artisans even further.
Read on as Nancy shares how studying in the UK shaped her mission, and why purpose should guide every student’s journey.
I first connected with the British Council in 2009. Through their many programmes, workshops, and seminars, I became familiar with opportunities to learn from the UK. When I finally decided to pursue my master’s degree, it was because I wanted to strengthen my business and take it further. The challenge was that there was a long gap between my bachelor’s degree in 2001 and my master’s programme in 2016, so returning to academia was not easy.
Studying a master’s in the UK is only one year, so you have to be on top of your game. I was not used to writing academic articles, yet we had to produce one nearly every week, and in proper academic English.
For some people, studying abroad can be taken mostly as a cultural or travel experience. For me, it was important to immerse myself in the academic rigour that the UK is known for. I wanted to bring back knowledge that would strengthen my company.
When I first established my company in 2007, there was no startup ecosystem in Indonesia. I learned about startups while trying to build one, and there was very little information or education available. My time in London helped me reflect on my early decisions. I looked back on what I had done right and what I had done wrong, and I realised it was never too late to improve.
In London, there was no such thing as being too late. You can improve at any stage of your company.
This mindset encouraged me to evaluate my business without fear of starting over. While studying, I began to imagine what the next version of my company could become. The impact was significant, both for my existing work and for the new ventures I was preparing to build.
There were three major lessons from my UK studies that transformed my work with artisans.
The first was software development. My startup creates software, so learning proper prototyping and user centred design helped me understand how to build digital products that artisans could truly use. I learned how to follow clear milestones, design meaningful features, and think critically about user experience.
The second was finance. Managing a startup’s finances is very different from managing a conventional business.
If you have one million, where do you put your money first? I learned frameworks to structure financial planning, manage cash flow, and decide which investments would create the strongest long term impact. This helped me see how financial decisions shape the entire growth trajectory of a startup.
The third was impact investment, which became the focus of my dissertation. As a social enterprise founder, I needed to understand what impact investors prioritise, how they measure success, and how entrepreneurs should evaluate their own impact. These insights have shaped both Batik Fractal and Digital Tenun Nusantara.
