Originating from a Javanese family, Soedarpo was active in the Indonesian nationalist movement during his education and later became a press officer for the government.

After some time as a diplomat in the United States, he started his own business of distribution and shipping, later expanding to financial services and eventually becoming one of the most successful businessmen in Indonesia.

Soedarpo was born in Pangkalan Susu, in what is today Langkat Regency of North Sumatra on 30 June 1920,[1] the seventh of nine siblings.

Also in that year, he was expelled from the medical school after participating in protests against the requirement for students to attend daily Japanese flag raising ceremony and bowing towards Tokyo.

[7] Later, he and Soedjatmoko was sent as an envoy from Sjahrir to Sukarno in a successful attempt to find and persuade the latter to allow the formation of a government led by a prime minister.

[8] Soedarpo joined the Indonesian Socialist Party upon its formation in 1948,[3] and helped launch a Dutch-language weekly paper Het Inzicht in addition to working at English publication Voice of Indonesia.

The following year, he managed to secure lucrative agencies with German Hapag and Japanese Tokyo Senpaku Kaisha shipping lines to Indonesia.

[12] Dutch historian Thomas Lindblad noted that Soedarpo "reputedly became the single most successful indigenous capitalist of the Sukarno period".

[20] He was married to Minarsih "Mien" Wiranatakoesoemah and has had three daughters: Shanti Lasminingsih Poesposoetjipto, Ratna Djuwita Tunggul Hatma, and Chandraleika Mulia.