Astra International Also Provides Funding of 72 Billion Rupiah to Sayurbox

After investing in Gojek in 2018, Astra International gave another injection of funds to other startups. Apart from participating in startup C series loop healthtech Halodoc, Astra also provides funding to startups online groceries Vegetable box.

To Halodoc, they participated in providing funds of $ 35 million or the equivalent of 508 billion Rupiah (out of a total of 1,1 trillion Rupiah recorded). Meanwhile for Sayurbox they poured out $ 5 million or the equivalent of 72 billion Rupiah. Unlike Halodoc, Sayurbox has yet to officially announce this funding round -- likely in the process fundraising still walking.

In a virtual press conference, as quoted Antaranews.com, President Director of Astra International Djony Bunarto Tjondro said the reason the company invested in the two startups was because they saw the existence of business case good work combined with a clear vision. This is also done as an organic strategy in an effort to find new opportunities and digitization.

In the past few years, the Astra group has been quite serious about working on the digital business. Through the Astra Digital unit, various innovations were spawned. One of them with presenting Gofleet in collaboration with Gojek, presents a solution for GoCar partners to rent vehicles with a subscription fee.

Previously, the unit also presented several other digital services, such as Seva.id, CariParkir, and Sejal.

Vegetables business development

During the pandemic, business online groceries thrives because it has succeeded in providing an alternative to meeting basic needs quickly and safely to the community. The growth spurt is also shown by Sayurbox, under the leadership of Amanda Susanti Cole (CEO), this startup continues intensify expansion throughout Java. Most recently, in September 2020, they just officially announced their presence in Bali and Surabaya.

In webinar #TuesdayStartup held DailySocial, Sayurbox CFO Arif Zamani also discussed how the platform online groceries also have a social impact on society. One of them is by helping to fix issues related to the supply chain -- in this case from farmers' crops, so that they can provide quality and affordable products while still providing maximum economic value to farmers.

Regarding the supply chain, Arif explained, in their Sayurbox build a structured system to do forecasting. "Because there is a commitment to a buying and selling system, so farmers who join us can do this planning so that they can still sell their harvest to us. During this time the harvesting technique was irregular, that's what caused it oversupply and scarcity of goods. We want to build that capacity so that pricing remain stable."

Then regarding funding, after the round seed received from Patamar Capital and Insignia Partners, in 2019 it was reported that Sayurbox received funding from unicorn Tokopedia. Last year, Sayurbox has also started a strategic partnership with fintech Cash Cloud financing to provide access to capital to farmer partners.

With an increasingly mature market, business online groceries also continues to be invaded by digital players. Such a giant player Gojek, Blibly, Grab, etc. also continues to penetrate fresh grocery shopping services. On the other hand, many startups in the same landscape have sprung up, say Segari, Dropezy, Tumbasin, and so on with the approach hyperlocal.