JALA Agrotech Startup Receives 8 Billion Rupiah Funding from 500 Startups

JALA Tech, a startup that provides technology solutions to optimize shrimp farmer productivity in Indonesia managed to secure an initial round of funding from 500 Startups of IDR 8 billion. Furthermore, this startup who is also a graduate of the Hatch Aquaculture Accelerator program plans to diversify their products by developing a number of new products.

JALA CEO Liris Maduningtyas to DailySocial said, currently they provide a cultivation platform for shrimp farmers. They develop services to monitor water quality real-time, predicting shrimp growth, and estimation of aquaculture yields.

Currently PULL is also developing and producing IoT (Internet of Things) devices for monitoring water quality. All solutions are offered to farm users/owners in a subscription scheme.

"For funding, other than for hiring resources to develop our products and market them, we also use them to manufacture IoT tools. After funding, we will develop and produce tools, marketing all over Indonesia, especially Lampung, Java, Bali and Lombok," Liris explained.

Meanwhile, 500 Startups through Managing Partner of 500 Startups Khailee Ng explained that they saw a big opportunity for JALA to help increase the productivity of shrimp farmers. Mainly to meet the growing demand.

"Everyone knows about the growing middle class, especially here in Indonesia. They are growing faster than what farmers can give them. This is why we invest in startups agrotech leading companies such as JALA. We need to leverage technology to [grow] 100x the productivity of existing farmers to feed the world," said Khailee Ng.

For now, startups based in Yogyakarta are focusing on growing their businesses and services. Some of their current focuses include market growth, retention rate, and several targets being achieved. As for the target, JALA targets to be used in shrimp ponds in Southeast Asia.

"Currently JALA's target is 20 thousand shrimp ponds in Southeast Asia using technology and solutions from JALA, then developing several other products to help shrimp farmers," explained lyrically.