Startup and tech communities in Bali (2026)

Startup and tech communities in Bali (2026)

As of 25 October 2026, three of the Bali tech groups in this directory have a dated in-person event in the last four months: Bali Start-ups and Tech Community (BSTC) in Canggu, GDG Bali in Denpasar and the Ubud Tech Meetup. Several better-known names (Startup Grind Bali, AI Tinkerers Canggu, Build Club Bali, the AI Founders Meetup at BWork) had no recent event we could find on their own pages, so check them before you plan around them.

This is a directory, not a ranking. Every group gets the same template: what it's for, who goes, where, how often, the most recent event we could find with a date, and a link to its own page so you can check for yourself. I co-host BSTC, so I've held it to exactly the same template and given it no extra adjectives.

How we checked. On 25 October 2026 we opened each group's own page (Meetup, Luma, its chapter site) and any event listings we could find. If a group's page showed no event in the last six months, we say so plainly. Groups change fast in Bali, so treat "last checked" as the date the facts were true.

The short version

Group	Focus	Area	Most recent dated event we found	Upcoming listed
Bali Start-ups and Tech Community (BSTC)	Founders, builders, AI	Canggu	How I AI Edition 17, Wed 29 July 2026	Yes, from 4 Nov 2026
GDG Bali	Developers, Google tech, AI	Denpasar	Monthly meetup, 19 July 2026	None listed
Ubud Tech Meetup	Tech people in Ubud	Ubud	30 June 2026	None listed
Founder Institute (Indonesia / Bali)	Pre-seed accelerator	Online	Online events listed 18 Nov and 2 Dec 2026	Online only
Startup Grind Bali	Founders, fireside chats	Canggu (BWork)	Virtual catch-up, 24 Feb 2026	None listed
AI Tinkerers Canggu	Technical AI builders	Canggu	No dated event on its page	None listed
Build Club Bali	AI builders	Denpasar	No dated event found	None listed
AI Founders Meetup at BWork	AI founders	Canggu	Listing last updated Feb 2024	Not confirmed

All rows last checked 25 Oct 2026. Details and sources below.

Bali Start-ups and Tech Community (BSTC)

• What it's for: networking and learning for people building startups, SaaS and AI products in Bali. The Meetup group describes monthly networking lunches and dinners plus access to mentors, investors and startup leaders (Meetup group, checked 25 Oct 2026).
• Who goes: founders, engineers, operators and people building with AI. Hosted by Josh Morrow and Lachlan McRitchie.
• Where: Canggu. The weekly How I AI series runs at Seoul Soul Project and the networking dinners at Yema Kitchen (Meetup group, checked 25 Oct 2026).
• How often: How I AI runs weekly in seasons. Season 2 runs every Wednesday from 4 November to 9 December 2026, 6 to 9pm, free (event page). The networking drinks and dinner runs roughly monthly; #39 is on Thursday 12 November 2026 at 6:30pm (event page).
• Size: 2,700+ members on Meetup, rated 4.7 from 155 ratings, 54 past Meetup events (Meetup group, checked 25 Oct 2026).
• Most recent dated event: How I AI Edition 17, Wednesday 29 July (2026) at Seoul Soul Project. Meetup also lists six upcoming events, starting with How I AI Season 2 Edition 18 on 4 November 2026 (Meetup group, checked 25 Oct 2026).
• Join: balistartupandtech.com/join. The Telegram link arrives after you sign up.
• Last checked 25 Oct 2026.

GDG Bali (Google Developer Group)

• What it's for: developer meetups, talks and workshops, lately with a strong AI focus. The chapter page says it's an independent group, not affiliated with Google (GDG Bali, checked 25 Oct 2026).
• Who goes: software developers and students, mostly Indonesian. The chapter page lists 2,869 members and a team of local organisers.
• Where: Denpasar. The July 2026 meetup was at INSTIKI (event) and Build with AI Bali 2026 was at Primakara University (event).
• How often: roughly monthly meetups plus larger events. The chapter's past events include DevFest Bali on 6 December 2025, a meetup on 7 March 2026, Build with AI Bali on 25 April 2026 and a meetup on 19 July 2026.
• Most recent dated event: July 2026 Monthly GDG Meetup, Sunday 19 July 2026, 2 to 5pm WITA, on AI in backend development (event, checked 25 Oct 2026). The chapter page said "There are currently no upcoming events."
• Last checked 25 Oct 2026.

Ubud Tech Meetup

• What it's for: a monthly evening talk and meetup for tech people based in Ubud.
• Who goes: builders and remote tech workers living in or near Ubud.
• Where: the June 2026 meetup was at Outpost Ubud Penestanan (Luma event, checked 25 Oct 2026).
• How often: monthly. The event page says "We meet on last Tuesdays of every month."
• Most recent dated event: "Building Kula", Tuesday 30 June 2026, 6:30 to 8:30pm (Luma event). The group's Luma calendar showed no events when we checked, so no event listed after June 2026. The event page points to an Instagram account (@ubudtechmeetup) that we didn't check.
• Last checked 25 Oct 2026.

Founder Institute (Indonesia and Bali)

• What it's for: a structured pre-seed accelerator programme (sessions, mentor feedback and a funding day), not a drop-in meetup.
• Who goes: early-stage founders who apply and pay an entrance fee. The Indonesia page lists the fee as US$299 and says founders pledge 2.5% of future equity to an equity collective (fi.co Indonesia, checked 25 Oct 2026).
• Where: the events currently listed are online.
• How often: cohort-based, with free online events in between.
• Most recent dated activity: the Indonesia page lists two free online events, on 18 November and 2 December 2026 (fi.co Indonesia). The sources conflict on a Bali cohort: a pitch event page for 8 September 2026 says the "Bali Indonesia 2026 Founder Institute cohort prepares to launch", while the same page calls it the "Bali Indonesia 2026 CANCELED program" (fi.co event, checked 25 Oct 2026). We found no in-person Bali event.
• Last checked 25 Oct 2026.

Startup Grind Bali

• What it's for: the Bali chapter of the global Startup Grind network. Its page describes monthly fireside chats for founders and people interested in startups, in partnership with BWork Bali coworking (Startup Grind Bali, checked 25 Oct 2026).
• Who goes: local founders, aspiring founders and startup staff.
• Where: BWork, Canggu, for in-person events; recent events have been virtual.
• How often: described as monthly, but the chapter page lists no dated upcoming Bali events.
• Most recent dated event: a virtual community catch-up on Tuesday 24 February 2026 (event, checked 25 Oct 2026). Before that, an AI All-Star Pitch Battle on 18 September 2025 (event). No in-person Bali event listed since September 2025.
• Last checked 25 Oct 2026.

AI Tinkerers Canggu

• What it's for: a hands-on technical AI meetup: live demos of working systems, technical Q&A and networking with no sales pitches. Part of the AI Tinkerers network, which its page says spans 269 cities and 140,000+ members (AI Tinkerers Canggu, checked 25 Oct 2026).
• Who goes: engineers, founders, researchers and product builders working on agents, RAG, evals and AI infrastructure, per the chapter page.
• Where: Canggu.
• How often: the page says most chapters meet monthly but frequency varies by city.
• Most recent dated event: none. The chapter page showed no dated events, past or upcoming, when we checked.
• Last checked 25 Oct 2026.

Build Club Bali

• What it's for: AI builder co-working sessions and show-and-tell, run as part of the Build Club network. Build Club's site lists a Bali chapter and a Jakarta chapter (buildclub.ai, checked 25 Oct 2026).
• Who goes: developers and students building with AI.
• Where: past sessions were in Renon, Denpasar, at Primakara University (Luma) and Timedoor Academy (Luma).
• How often: not stated.
• Most recent dated event: none we could date. Both Luma event pages are marked "Past Event" without showing a date, and the Build Club calendar listed no Bali events when we checked.
• Last checked 25 Oct 2026.

AI Founders Meetup at BWork

• What it's for: a meetup for AI startup founders to connect and find collaborators.
• Where: the Kiva Room at BWork, Canggu.
• How often: the listing says every Tuesday, 7 to 8:30pm, open to the public with RSVP (bali.live, checked 25 Oct 2026).
• Most recent dated event: the listing was last updated 20 February 2024 and shows "Jan 16" with no year. BWork's own community calendar didn't list it when we checked (BWork community, checked 25 Oct 2026). No event confirmed since early 2024.
• Last checked 25 Oct 2026.

Other events and groups we checked

• Bali Tech Week (annual, government-backed). Ran 19 to 23 October 2026 at Bali Beach Convention Center, Sanur. Katadata reported 1,785 registered participants, 135 of them from abroad, a few days before it opened (Katadata, 14 Oct 2026). It's a conference, not a community, but it's the biggest tech date on Bali's calendar.
• BWork founder events. BWork's own calendar listed a "Bali Founders: Startup Growth Mastermind" on 7 October at BWork Canggu (BWork community, checked 25 Oct 2026). Worth watching if you work from BWork.
• Agentic Engineering and Vibe Coding Meetup (Bitcoin House Bali, Canggu). Listed as monthly on the 4th Tuesday, but the 25 August 2026 session was marked cancelled on Meetup (Meetup), the Eventbrite listing says postponed (Eventbrite), and the Meetup group page returned "Group not found" (all checked 25 Oct 2026). Treat as paused.
• Web3. Crypto Community Bali co-hosted Bali Web3 Connect on 23 May 2026 in Kuta (Luma, checked 25 Oct 2026). If Web3 is your thing there are more groups than this; we haven't covered them.
• Social nomad groups. Freaking Nomads lists 18 Bali groups, mostly social Telegram, WhatsApp and Facebook chats rather than builder communities (Freaking Nomads, checked 25 Oct 2026). More on that split in our digital nomad community guide.

How to choose

• You're a founder or building with AI and based in Canggu: start with BSTC's weekly How I AI and the monthly dinner. Of the groups in this list, they're the only ones with Canggu dates listed for November 2026.
• You're a developer, or want to meet Indonesian engineers: watch GDG Bali's chapter page. Its events are developer-focused and run in Denpasar.
• You live in Ubud: the Ubud Tech Meetup is the local one. Check its Luma calendar near the last Tuesday of the month.
• You want a structured accelerator: Founder Institute, knowing it runs online.
• You want deep technical AI demos: AI Tinkerers is the format to watch for, but confirm a Canggu date is actually listed first.

Then read how to meet founders and tech people in Bali for a first-week plan, and the Bali tech events list for what's on.

FAQ

What is the biggest startup community in Bali?

By listed members, GDG Bali's chapter page shows 2,869 and BSTC's Meetup group shows 2,700+ (both checked 25 Oct 2026). Membership isn't the same as activity, so check which groups have a dated event coming up. On 25 October 2026, BSTC was the only group in this list with upcoming in-person Bali events listed.

Are there AI meetups in Bali?

Yes. BSTC's How I AI runs weekly in Canggu (Season 2 is Wednesdays, 4 November to 9 December 2026), and GDG Bali runs AI-focused developer events in Denpasar. AI Tinkerers Canggu and Build Club Bali exist but had no dated upcoming events when we checked.

Is Startup Grind still active in Bali?

Its chapter page is live and describes monthly fireside chats with BWork, but the most recent event we found was a virtual catch-up on 24 February 2026 and no upcoming Bali events were listed on 25 October 2026.

Are there tech meetups in Ubud?

The Ubud Tech Meetup meets on the last Tuesday of each month. Its most recent listed event was on 30 June 2026 at Outpost Ubud Penestanan, and its calendar showed nothing newer when we checked.

Do I have to pay to join a Bali tech community?

The community meetups in this list are free to attend, though venues usually ask you to order food or drinks. Founder Institute is a paid accelerator.

How often is this page updated?

Every group shows its "last checked" date. If you run a Bali tech group and something here is out of date, tell us in the community chat and we'll recheck it.

Join BSTC

If you're building something in Bali, sign up at balistartupandtech.com/join. It takes a minute, and the Telegram link arrives straight after you sign up, along with the next event dates.