eFishery Receives Fresh Funds of 1,2 Trillion Rupiah, Prepares To Expand Throughout Asia

Startups aquatech eFishery announces $90 million (over 1,2 trillion Rupiah) series C funding led by Temasek, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Sequoia Capital India, with participation previous investors, namely Northstar Group, Go-Ventures, Aqua-Spark, and Wavemaker Partners.

The fresh funds obtained are claimed to be the largest in the world for startups in aquaculture technology. The company plans to use the funds to improve the platform and services. Also, strengthening eFishey's digital products to become the largest digital “cooperative” for fish and shrimp cultivators. Not only that, eFishery plans regional expansion by targeting the top 10 countries in aquaculture positions, such as India and China.

Investment Director SoftBank Investment Advisers Anna Lo said, "Indonesia is one of the largest fish producers in the world and its aquaculture sector plays an important role in producing food for the world's growing population. eFishery pioneering technology adoption for local fish and shrimp farmers with platform end-to-end complete range, supporting them to increase productivity across the supply chain. Starting from technology, food supply, aquaculture production, to selling fresh produce.

"We are pleased to partner with eFishery and support them to provide reliable and sustainable fishery food products to Indonesia and other regions," said Lo in an official statement, (11/1).

Sequoia India VP Aakash Kapoor added, “With a market of $20 billion and a complex and fragmented supply chain, aquaculture is one of the biggest and most exciting opportunities in Indonesia. That is what makes working with eFishery, as the market leader in this sector, interesting.”

Based in Bandung, eFishery is revolutionizing the traditional fish and shrimp farming industry and providing solutions specifically designed to increase fish and shrimp farming yields. eFishery offers an integrated end-to-end platform and provides fish and shrimp farmers access to (i) technology, (ii) feed, (iii) financing, and (iv) markets.

eFishery Innovation

Since it was founded in 2013, thousands smart feeders has been used and served more than 30.000 farmers from 24 provinces in Indonesia. At the height of the pandemic, eFishery increased its network tenfold since December 2020, and strengthened the adoption of feed sales services and aquacultured fish.

The eFishery series of innovations, including eFarm and eFisheryKu. eFarm is an online platform that provides complete and easy-to-understand information about shrimp farming operations for cultivators, while eFisheryKu is an integrated platform, enabling fish farmers to purchase various aquaculture needs, such as fish feed, at competitive prices. Farmers can also apply for capital through eFund, which connects fish farmers directly with financial institutions.

The main component of eFund is Kabayan (Kasih, Pay Later), a service that provides fish cultivators with productive capital that can be used to purchase aquaculture production facilities with a maturity payment system. The whole process is done practically through the eFisheryKu application. To date, more than 7.000 farmers have been supported by this service, with the total approved loans exceeding 400 billion rupiah.

eFishery Co-founder & CEO Gibran Huzaifah said the company focused on presenting solutions to increase farmer productivity. Through the introduction of new technologies, he and his team streamline fish and shrimp farming businesses, making the industry more effective, efficient and sustainable. For example, eFishery's downstream technology, eFeeder, is able to speed up the harvest cycle and increase production capacity by up to 26%.

“We are also connecting cultivators directly with buyers through our downstream technology, eFresh, thereby increasing their marketability. As a result, our solution is able to reduce operational costs and increase farmers' income by up to 45 percent," he said.

Since its last funding, eFishery has tripled its workforce, with its current total workforce of more than 900 people. Although the head office is located in Bandung, more than half of the employees work remotely because of the policy that allows employees to work from anywhere (Work From Anywhere/WFA).

"We will use the funding this time to aggressively recruit the team, especially talents in the field of engineering and product development. We are targeting to recruit 1.000 new employees this year, not only to create an impact in the Indonesian aquaculture industry, but on a larger scale, to conquer the global aquaculture supply.”

Through technology-based solutions, eFishery modernizes cultivation techniques so that aquaculture yields are better. eFishery has ambitions to acquire one million farmers within the next 3-5 years.

“The most important thing we always remember is our vision, which is to feed the global community through aquaculture, because aquaculture is the most efficient and highly nutritious source of animal protein. By 2050, there will be 10 billion people to feed, and we are ready to prepare this sector to be able to feed the world,” said Gibran.

Aquaculture startups in Indonesia

The global Aquaculture market size is expected to have a market growth in the forecast period 2020 to 2025, at a CAGR of 3,5%% in the forecast period 2020 to 2025 and is expected to reach $239,8 trillion in 2025, from $209,4 trillion in 2019.

Every year, aquaculture increases its contribution to global seafood production. The sector produced 110,2 million tonnes in 2016, worth $243,5 billion and accounts for 53 percent of the world's seafood supply. According to FAO data, 90 percent of production volume is produced in Asia.

In Indonesia, there are already several startups that have started targeting similar segments. Call it Aruna, a technology startup that provides a platform to make it easier for fishermen to sell their products directly to global and domestic markets. The company has also successfully secured funding in 2020 from East Ventures, AC Ventures, and SMDV.

One more startup that is engaged in a more specific sector, namely Jala. This startup presents technological solutions to optimize the productivity of shrimp farmers in Indonesia. In 2019, his team managed to secure an initial round of funding from 500 Startups of 8 billion Rupiah.