Startup Agrotech Chilibeli Applying "Social Commerce" Approach and Community Empowerment

The agricultural sector in Indonesia has enormous business potential. Even for digital startups working on solutions in this field. However, the challenge is that innovators will be faced with issues with unique characteristics. A new player trying their luck is Chilibeli, bringing the concept of community empowerment together with the platform social commerce.

Business concept Chilibeli bridging fresh produce from farmers (such as vegetables, fruits etc.) with final consumers. What distinguishes the channel E-commerce otherwise, bookings are made per community, not individually. Alex Feng as founder & CEO said that this approach was carried out from the habits of the Indonesian people who like to gather and do activities together with other people around their homes.

By using the C2M . model (customer to manufacturer), Alex believes that this method can overcome the challenge of selling fresh produce directly into the hands of buyers. It claims the current Chilibeli is the only one agritech who use the system in Indonesia.

"We have to make reservations in advance, collect requests, inform beg, then send the product to the warehouse; and we will send it to the agent. That way we can ensure freshness, drive efficiency and reduce losses," added Alex.

Funding and targets

As a platform that connects end buyers with suppliers, Chilibeli takes advantage of the price difference they earn. With the various types of food they sell, they accommodate three supply lines, namely farmers, wholesalers and markets.

From this scheme, his party targets operations that are always profitable. This year they are targeting to earn US$120 million or Rp1,6 trillion in revenue.

Regarding funding, the startup that was founded in 2019 has now pocketed a series A investment, precisely in December 2019 with a nominal value of US $ 10 million or around Rp. 137 billion. The participating investors include Lightspeed Venture Partners and Northstar Group. Soon, in the second or third quarter of this year, Chilibeli intends to open a series B round.

Previously Chilibeli was also included in Surge acceleration program which was initiated by Sequoia in 2019.

Alex said his vision became social commerce largest in Southeast Asia for agricultural products. For this reason, they intend to immediately expand their service area to East Java and Central Java, followed by the addition of warehouse facilities in the vicinity. As is known, Chilibeli can only serve customers in Jakarta and its surroundings.

"No other player in this country uses the community system for fresh produce, neither B2B nor B2C. We empower mothers and communities by combining social commerce and fresh products," concluded Alex.