Agritech Startup Semaai Obtains Pre-Series A Funding of IDR 73 Billion

Agritech startup Semaai announced the acquisition of pre-Series A funding worth $4,7 million (around IDR 73 billion) in the form of equity and debt. This round was led by CyberAgent Capital, with participation from new investors, such as Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia, Ruvento, MyAsiaVC, and Heracles Ventures. Existing investors, namely Surge, part of Peak XV, Accion Venture Lab, and Beenext, participated in the round.

The total funding achieved by Semaai since it was first established in August 2021 reached $7,6 million (around IDR 118 billion). The previous round was won in February 2023.

Semaai will use the injection to expand agricultural consulting services targeting farmer shops and farmers, collaborate with financial institutions to provide fintech solutions, and expand Semaai services in Central Java which has more than 8.200 villages. It is targeted that Semaai will reach 75% of villages by the end of 2024.

In an official statement delivered by the company today (8/1), Semaai Co-founder and CEO Muhammad Yoga Anindito said, "This is part of our target to provide an integrated digital ecosystem to overcome agricultural supply chain challenges and overcome the knowledge gap in farmer's shops. and small farmers in Indonesia.”

CyberAgent Indonesia Office Director Kevin Wijaya said, “[..] Looking at the track record of Semaai's founders in the agricultural sector, we are confident that Semaai can revolutionize Indonesia's agricultural sector through an offline-to-online approach, especially in the agricultural raw material supply chain.”

Semaai Achievement

The agricultural sector, together with the forestry and fisheries sectors, grew 1,46% annually and 1,61% quarterly. Data from the Central Statistics Agency for 2023 shows that the agricultural sector contributed IDR 397.291,202 billion to Indonesia's GDP, or 12,71% of total GDP.

Even though it is the largest contributor to the national economy, this sector still faces several challenges, such as limited access to financing, long supply chains, and low technology adoption.

To overcome these challenges, Semaai provides three main services that are widely used by farmers and agricultural retailers, namely:

1. Digital marketplace for B2B for agricultural inputs such as seeds and fertilizer,
2. Agricultural consulting services to improve agricultural practices, and
3. Financial services through collaboration with trusted financial institutions and fintech providers.

According to Yoga, the unique blend of trade and logistics integrated into Semaai's consulting services will provide great value and benefits for agricultural retailers and farmers.

To support the three products above, Semaai has launched an agricultural clinic feature. This feature contains educational content organized by plant type, focus of pests and diseases related to plants. This clearly and simply designed content helps users to thoroughly understand the complexity of crop problems.

“After the education stage, users are provided with recommendations, helping them to address and mitigate the issue effectively in the future.”

It is claimed that Semaai succeeded in achieving an increase in net income (net revenue) up to 15 times throughout 2023 and the increase in Toko Tani marketplace users will double. Use of the agricultural consultation feature has increased 8-fold over the last six months and it is said that most of Semaai's active users utilize this feature.