November 14, 2018

eFishery, an Indonesian agtech startup manufacturing smart fish feeders, has raised $4 million through a Series A backed by a collective of global investors, including Wavemaker Partners, Aqua-Spark, 500 Startups, Maloekoe Ventures, Social Capital, Unreasonable Capital, and Triputra Group, among others.

Founded in 2013 by Huzaifah and Chrisna Aditya, eFishery is the first self-proclaimed ‘fishtech’ company in Indonesia. Through the startup’s feeding device and IoT data platform, eFishery is able to provide solutions to the fish and shrimp farming industries by enabling farmers to make informed operating decisions about their aquaculture ponds. Through its smart feeding platform, the company uses sensors to gather data on fish behavior and production that can be implemented to calibrate fish appetite and automatically distribute the appropriate feed volumes, then  providing a real-time report of consumption to the operator’s smartphone.

Aqua-Spark is a return investor in this round, having led a Pre-Series A for the company in September 2015 along with Indonesian VC firm Ideosource. And it is the great potential for disruption of a massive market that drew Aqua-Spark to return.

“We think the industry is going to triple in the next 30 years,” said Amy Novogratz, co-founder and managing partner at Aqua-Spark. “Eighty percent of the aquaculture industry is in Asia, with Indonesia alone having over 4 million fish farmers. This type of solution makes sustainable farming more profitable. It is certainly going to transform the industry.”

Historically, fish feed has accounted for between 50 and 80 percent of the overhead faced by fish farmers, with overfeeding not only causing a negative impact on a farmer’s bottom line, but on the environment as well, while underfeeding results in a loss of vigor and output.

eFishery’s device that allows for smart, automatic, and proper feeding has so far been deployed in thousands of fish farming operations across 16 Indonesian provinces and 67 cities, and pilot programs are currently being undertaken in Bangladesh, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Over the past two years the company has seen rapid growth and an increase in revenue of 261 times. Plans for the coming year include an expansion of the company’s presence into Sumatra, Borneo, and Celebes.

“Ultimately, with this new round of investment, we want to further scale and refine our operating model,” said Gibran Huzaifah, co-founder and CEO, eFishery. “We aim to be a platform that connects the entire ecosystem in fish and shrimp farming, creating a more accountable and profitable industry across the region.”

-Lynda Kiernan