January 13, 2022

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Indonesian aquaculture tech startup eFishery has broken records, successfully closing on a $90 million Series C and becoming the world’s largest aquaculture tech startup in the world. 

The round was co-led by Temasek, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and Sequoia Capital India, and included existing investors Northstar Group, Aqua-Spark, Go-Ventures, and Wavemaker Partners.

Aqua-Spark first invested in the company back in 2015 when it and Indonesian venture capital firm Ideosource committed undisclosed funding for a pre-Series A round, and returned in 2018 to participate in eFisheries $4 million Series A along with Wavemaker Partners, 500 Startups, Maloekoe Ventures, Social Capital, Unreasonable Capital, and Triputra Group, among others.

Founded in 2013 in Bandung by Gibran Huzaifah and Chrisna Aditya, eFishery is the first self-proclaimed ‘fishtech’ company in Indonesia. The company’s goal has been to revolutionize traditional farming methods and provide solutions that improve outcomes for fish and shrimp farmers through an end-to-end platform that gives farmers access to: technology, feed, financing, and markets.

Over the years, eFishery has deployed thousands of smart feeders, serving more than 30,000 farmers across 24 provinces in Indonesia. During the worst of the pandemic, since December 2020, the company scaled its network by tenfold and expanded the adoption of its fresh and feed services.

“Indonesia is one of the world’s largest producers of fish and we believe its aquaculture industry can play a meaningful role in feeding the world’s growing population,” said Anna Lo, investment director, SoftBank Investment Advisers. “eFishery is pioneering the adoption of technology for local fish and shrimp farmers with a complete, integrated platform that supports them to improve productivity across feed supply, production, and the sale of fresh produce.”

The company’s latest suite of products includes eFarm and the eFisheryKu App. eFarm is a user-friendly and comprehensive online platform that gives farmers easy-to-understand information about their shrimp farming operations, and eFisherKu is an integrated platform through which farmers can purchase their inputs and supplies, such as feed, at competitive prices.

Through the app, farmers can also apply for a loan through eFund, which links farmers directly to finance institutions, adhering to Kabayan (a condensed word taken from – ‘Kasih Bayar Nanti’, which translates to ‘Pay Later’). This service provides farmers with funding that can be used to purchase what is needed to run their operation through installments via a seamless process conducted solely through the app. So far, more than 7,000 farmers have engaged with this platform with total approved loans exceeding $28 million. 

“We are focused on increasing farmers’ productivity,” said Gibran Huzaifah, co-founder and CEO, eFishery. “Through the introduction of new technologies, we’re streamlining the fish and shrimp farming business, making the industry more effective, efficient and sustainable.”

Huzaifah explained, “For example, our upstream technology, eFeeder, optimizes yield days and increases farmers’ production capacity by up to 26 percent, while also optimizing feed efficiency by up to 30 percent through reducing time and labour costs. We also connect farmers with buyers via eFresh, our downstream technology, which increases their purchasing power. As a result, the solutions ecosystem lowers operational farming costs and increases the farmers’ income by up to 45 percent.”

Aakash Kapoor, VP at Sequoia India, added, “With US$20 billion in market size, and a fragmented and complex supply chain, aquaculture is one of the largest and most attractive opportunities in Indonesia. eFishery’s product offerings spanning feeder devices, input feed procurement, and fresh output sales combined with farmer financing is the most comprehensive and strategic model to serve this market.”

The capital secured through this round will be used by the company to scale up its platform and to strengthen its digital offerings, making it the world’s largest digital “cooperative” for fish and shrimp farming. The company also has plans to expand geographically, targeting the top 10 countries for aquaculture, including India and China.

Since its last funding round, eFishery has grown its team threefold, with 900 employees currently onboard. Despite being headquartered in Bundung, more than half the company’s employees are remote, under its Work From Anywhere (WFA) permanent policy. 

However, the company has plans in place to continue the expansion of its team by using funds from this Series C to recruit 1,000 new employees this year, with a particular focus on hiring engineering and product development talent. It also aims to acquire 1 million farmers in the next three-to-five years, while modernizing production techniques and improving outcomes. 

“Our first and foremost vision is to feed the global community through aquaculture as this is the most efficient and highly nutritious source of animal protein. With 10 billion people to feed by 2050, we will better prepare this sector to be ready to feed the world,” concluded Gibran.

– Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com. 

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