1. Startups

Eight Years Story of eFishery Pioneer of Aquaculture Startups in Indonesia

Now starting to enter the inflection point, it requires a qualified technology team to help systemize business processes so that they are fully digital

The confidence of eFishery that is able to close Series C pendanaan funding become an interesting story because it is claimed to be the largest funding that has been obtained by an aquaculture startup in the world.

There were three names of new investors who led the round, namely Temasek, SoftBank, and Sequoia Capital India. The entry of global investors into aquaculture startups is a new thing, from those usually better known as investing in -based businesses consumer, began to be interested in the business potential that eFishery is serious about.

eFishery's journey itself to get to this point is not as easy as turning the palm of the hand. In terms of the industry itself, not only in Indonesia, even on a global scale, there is no benchmark that eFishery can use to find its business model. As a result, in these eight years, the company has done a lot trials and errors to make playbook own.

"But because I used to participate in catfish farming, from the results of chatting with fish farmers, the main problem with fish farming is that the feed costs up to 70% of the total production costs," said Gibran Huzaifah, Co-Founder and CEO of eFishery. mediagathering.

On the occasion, the Commissioner of eFishery Aldi Haryopratomo and Managing Director of Northstar Group Sidharta Oetama were also present.

The main product of eFishery is the eFishery Smart Autofeeder which is a smart automatic fish feeding machine that is set up using a smartphone. This tool feeds automatically, logs feed data, and connects to the internet. The data is collected and then utilized by the company in providing the next solution, namely eFarm and eFisheryKu.

eFarm is a platform that provides complete and easy-to-understand information about shrimp adding operations. Meanwhile, eFisheryKu is an integrated platform that allows fish farmers to buy various aquaculture needs, such as fish feed, at competitive prices.

This Smart Autofeeder is available in subscription form. The price starts from Rp. 5 thousand per day to Rp. 150 thousand a month, while fish farming is set at a maximum of Rp. 350 thousand a month. This all includes service and installation fees, farmers bisa stop subscribe anytime.”

Of all the products above, one of the interesting points that Aldi emphasized is about mechanization. Changing the way fish cultivators work from being completely manual to using modern tools, to creating efficiencies that have an impact on many things.

“From this mechanization, a lot of data can be utilized and become the foundation for the next eFishery products. Because previously there was no size for feeding fish, so there is a standard,” said Aldi.

Sidharta added, apart from mechanization, from a humanist perspective, this mechanization gives fish cultivators a sense of freedom to do other things outside of their main job.

The experience was previously presented by players sharing economy, like Gojek which gives freedom to its partners to do other work.

“With mechanization, farmers can now measure their own productivity and are flexible to do other things. From what I saw when I visited one of the partner locations, they joined eFishery because they were tired of having to feed fish every day, using their hands, not to mention if the pool is more than one, if you tell someone else, you don't necessarily feed the fish. But now using the application is very easy," said Sidharta.

However, the challenge of introducing the eFishery solution to more fish and shrimp farmers is tough, especially in the early stages. "However the harder the challenge, the bigger the opportunity is,” he continued, explaining why Northstar was interested in investing in eFishery.

Enter stage inflection points

Gibran continued, Smart Autofeeder products are entry point eFishery in reaching new farmers, as well as being a bridge to include other eFishery products. For this reason, the more farmers who use it, the greater the impact created, from production efficiency to a more affordable selling price of fish.

In order to achieve this target, eFishery seeks to add new talents, especially in the field of engineering sebagai backbone main company. The proportion of engineering talent in eFishery is currently the second largest after the team sales and expansion. The number of engineering teams will be doubled, considering that the company's next focus is to prepare cultivators who have already tech savvy to dive deeper into digital products.

This is related to the position of the company that has achieved inflection points. According to Gibran, at this point, companies must be more systematic in managing their employees and consumers on a digital basis to be more efficient.

“When we introduced eFishery for the first time, we recruited a lot of field teams because we needed face-to-face meetings. We teach them to know smartphones, use daily applications until finally we introduce the eFishery application. Entered into inflection points, we need to be more disciplined and systematic, that's why we need more people engineer. "

It is said that currently eFishery, through technology downstream of eFeeder, is able to speed up the harvest cycle and increase production capacity by up to 26%. Meanwhile, eFresh reduces operational costs and increases farmers' income by up to 45%. The purchase price of feed provided by the company is also claimed to be 3%-5% cheaper than buying it at distributor agents.

Counting now thousands smart feeders taleh is used and serves more than 30 thousand cultivators. About 40% of these cultivators are scattered around the islands of Java and South Sumatra. This condition is directly reflected considering that 65% of the population of fish and shrimp cultivators in Indonesia is in that location.

“We have succeeded in proving a successful business modeldeliver well for fish and shrimp cultivators. Especially in the last two years getting stronger because of waking up value chain, so that valueit could be more intangible. For example, farmers initially have one pond, so they have more than one, then their ambitions are much bigger, for example, they want to send their children to college,” said Gibran.

Coming soon in Thailand

On the occasion also discussed the company's plans for expansion. Gibran said it would soon be commercially present in Thailand, after piloting it some time ago with local partners. Then, targeting India and China in the next five years. "This year, we are exploring the market first."

Both countries have promising potential, both in terms of production and consumption. In terms of challenges, the cultivation pattern is the same as in Indonesia, so Gibran believes the eFishery solution can be replicated there. Plus, there are no startups that focus on aquaculture like companies on a global scale.

"There's not even [players like us] there. As for the potential for the largest fish and shrimp in the world, the top 10 is in APAC, except for Norway. We are pioneers in this segment and are optimistic that we can master it.”

Although he plans to expand regionally, he still places Indonesia as the company's main focus. The reason is, the potential for cultivators is still so large that it has not been exploited. It is said that there are 3,5 million fish and shrimp farmers, the company targets to attract 1 million farmers in the next three to five years. As for this year, it is targeted to be able to target 200 thousand cultivators or increase to four times.

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