Aruna Receives an Injection of Funds Worth 81 Billion Rupiah

Aruna managed to secure a new funding of $5,5 million or around 81 billion Rupiah. These startups in the marine and fisheries sector received new capital injections from their previous investors.

Through an official statement, it was conveyed that East Ventures, AC Ventures, and SMDV were the names involved in the Aruna funding this. The fresh funds were allegedly thanks to Aruna's 86-fold growth in the midst of the pandemic.

"During this pandemic, Aruna's revenue in the first half of 2020 grew 86 times compared to the first half of 2019. Aruna is one of the companies that was positively affected by the crisis. This makes us excited," said East Ventures Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Willson Cuaca.

Budget allocation

Aruna already has a number of plans in utilizing the fresh funds. Co-Founder & CEO of Aruna Farid Naufal Aslam explained that expansion is the company's first focus. Aruna himself is currently collaborating with thousands of fishermen in 31 coastal locations from Sumatra to Papua.

The expansion meant by Farid was to increase fish absorption points in one province. Additional coverage to new areas was also carried out, such as East Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Papua.

Farid said the funds would also be used to recruit new talents, develop new products, including use of the Internet of Things (IoT) to strengthen the quality of their products. Equally important, Aruna also allocates the new funds to strengthen the fishing community base and increase their productivity in terms of product quality and standardization.

"Aruna plans to support economic equity efforts by reaching more coastal points in various parts of Indonesia," said Farid.

High demand

Farid said there were a number of factors that caused Aruna to grow quite rapidly even during this pandemic. First is the number of fishermen who choose to join Aruna. The number of fishermen who have just joined cannot be separated from the second factor, namely increasing demand.

Farid admits that their products were mostly used for export. However, since the pandemic began, logistics and transportation have weakened, forcing Aruna to look at the domestic retail market. In addition, he also mentioned the factor of the increase in the price of fishery products at the beginning of the year.

"Because of the high demand, we will increase the production activity area," added Farid.