Velnaris
Bandung office where Velnaris researchers work

About us

A small team built around one habit: checking the date twice.

Velnaris grew out of newsroom fact-checking work and now supports reporters across Indonesia directly.

Founder reviewing archived documents
9+ years

Our story

Where this started

Velnaris began in Bandung when a handful of former fact-checkers noticed that the reporters doing the most careful long-form work were also the ones with the least support — no in-house researcher, no time to chase institutional records, no second pair of eyes on a chronology stretching back years.

We started offering that second pair of eyes on a project basis, and the work stayed narrow on purpose: non-criminal subjects, documented methods, and no interest in drawing conclusions that belong to the reporter, not to us.

Nine years on, the team is still small. That's deliberate — it keeps the work close and the standards consistent from one engagement to the next.

Values

What guides the work

01

Mark the gap, don't paper over it

When a date or claim isn't fully documented, we say so plainly instead of smoothing it into the narrative.

02

Stay out of the byline

Our findings support your reporting; the judgment calls and the story itself remain yours.

03

Keep the scope narrow

We work only on non-criminal subjects, which lets us apply the same careful method every time.

Team

The people you'll work with

Portrait of Larasati Wibowo

Larasati Wibowo

Founder & Lead Researcher

Portrait of Bagas Suryanto

Bagas Suryanto

Institutional Research Lead

Portrait of Wening Kartika

Wening Kartika

Source Corroboration Analyst

Curious whether we're a fit for your project?

Get in touch