DELOS Raises Series A Funding Led by Monk's Hill Ventures

Aquatech startup DELOS announced it has closed its first round of Series A funding with an undisclosed amount, led by Monk's Hill Ventures. However, according to the data on the site crunchbase, the investment achieved by DELOS reached $ 5,75 million (around IDR 88 billion).

This funding is announced a month later after DELOS laid off a number of its employees.

DELOS will use the fresh funds to multiply production through developing AquaHero and AquaLink, intensifying research and developing features to increase impact on supply chain effectiveness.

In an official statement delivered today (7/9), Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Monk's Hill Ventures Kou-Yi Lim said, DELOS is advancing the use of data science and technology in the shrimp farming industry in Indonesia. Companies have proven to be able to increase agricultural productivity by reducing input costs, while enabling traceability and sustainability in agricultural practices.

"We are pleased to be partnering with the DELOS team in transforming the important and strategic aquaculture industry, not only in Indonesia, but throughout Southeast Asia. This is an investment with the potential to have a big impact for us," said Lim.

DELOS was founded in 2021 by Guntur Mallarangeng, Aris Noerhadi, Alexander Farthing, and Bobby Indra Gunawan Wibisono. DELOS has a mission to advance Indonesia to become an international aquaculture-based seafood production center in the next decade.

This revolution will be a radical change to drive the growth and modernization of Indonesia's $2,5 billion aquaculture industry and further integrate it into the global seafood supply chain. ‍ Since receiving its initial round of funding in March 2022, DELOS has launched an agricultural product, AquaHero, which is a complete agricultural productivity system that combines scientific expertise, technology and operational excellence to increase agricultural yields and maintain profitability.

AquaHero uses high-end data collection methods and state-of-the-art biological models to predict and mitigate harvest risk, models that will be trained on hundreds of shrimp farms in the DELOS ecosystem across Indonesia. This, combined with the necessary technology and operational expertise, is claimed to be able to increase livestock productivity for the Indonesian aquaculture industry.

There is also, AquaLink, a harvesting and logistics platform that enables DELOS to capture and provide a sustainable and traceable supply of seafood downstream of the value chain. The company is currently responsible for producing and distributing thousands of tons of shrimp annually, and has taken steps to integrate its supply into the $300 billion global seafood market.

DELOS CEO Guntur Mallarangeng said that the aquaculture sector in Indonesia needed growth over the last few decades. Most farming decisions are still made based on gut feeling and tradition, not based on empirical farming data and practices.

"Indonesia's natural advantage as the world's largest tropical maritime country provides all the puzzles needed for Indonesia to become the world's largest seafood producer. Increasing the application of technology and best practices in the aquaculture industry will help us realize its true potential. It can be a very profitable industry. strategic for Indonesia," said Guntur.

The aquaculture industry in Indonesia is known to be hampered by a number of classic challenges in supply chain aspects. The low adoption of technology and the lack of access to financing facilities have also hampered the productivity of shrimp cultivation and production, which is targeted to grow 250% in the next three years.

The challenges above are considered to limit downstream processor output to an average of 40% -60% of the total capacity. In addition, less than 5% of the agricultural sector has a productivity of more than four times that of its neighboring farms (40 tonnes vs 10 tonnes/Ha).