The Integrated eFishery ecosystem, covering the marketplace for sales of fish and shrimp products, has bolstered over 7,000 of Indonesia’s cultivators and farmers.
Heaptalk, Jakarta — Indonesia-based aquaculture startup eFishery, announced has seized a new investment round in a Series D funding worth US$200 million, or equal to Rp3 trillion.
In this funding round, a global investment management company based in United Arab Emirates (UAE). Several investor parties backed this round, including Malaysia’s largest pension fund Association Wang Association, Swiss-based asset management firm responsAbility Investment AG, and a multistage venture capital firm 500Globals. On the other hand, the early eFishery’s investors, such as Northstar, Temasek, and Softbank also involved in this funding.
This unicorn startup will tackle the new fund for community development of fish cultivators and shrimp farmers from eFishery, which targets more than 1 million aquaculture ponds in Indonesia by 2025. This Indonesia’s fishery startup will also utilize the funding to increase transactions for fish feed and fresh Aquaculture products.
According to the company, the development of the Farmer community aligns with its endeavor to uplift exports of domestic shrimp products that are free of chemicals and antibiotics. In addition, this matter also makes the export of the company’s shrimp products fully traceable to the International market, as well as closer relations between consumers and farmers.
In response to this new achievement, the Co-Founder and CEO of eFishery, Gibran Huzaifah, admitted, “Currently, aquaculture is the fastest-growing industry in the global fishing industry. The strategic support we receive from investors will help the startup revolutionize the entire industry through the integration of small-scale fish farmers and shrimp farmers with the ecosystem that covers the whole value chain aquaculture business,”
Furthermore, the integrated ecosystem of eFishery, which covers a marketplace and platforms for sales of fish products, shrimp products, and services to access finance, has bolstered more than 7,000 cultivators and farmers throughout the archipelago. Moreover, based on the latest research from the Demographic Institute, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Indonesia (LD FEB UI), this aquaculture startup has contributed to Indonesia’s GDP of 1.55%, or approximately US$224 million of the aquaculture sector throughout 2022.
Leading this Series D round, the Principle of the 42XFund, Faith Adiwibowo, delivered that the aquaculture technology that eFishery provides has had a significant impact on the aquaculture technology industry and is beneficial for Indonesia’s cultivators. His party believes the startup can continue contributing to realizing an inclusive and sustainable economy while preserving the environment in the country.
Established in Bandung in 2013, this startup has disrupted the Aquaculture industry by presenting digital solutions auto feeder based Internet of Things (IoT), designed to increase the accountability, efficiency, and convenience of the fish farming business. The company also used sensors to measure fish movement and acoustics from shrimp, optimizing feeding, fish health, and water quality while reducing waste.
The Managing Partner of the 500 Global, Khailee Ng, observed eFishery has proven to be unique in terms of business model innovation, as demonstrated by its achievement in three areas at once, namely scalability, sustainable growth, and profitability that have been produced consistently over the years, even before becoming a company with a valuation of over US$1 million.
Aligned with Khailee, the Global Head of Sustainable Food Equity of responsAbility Investment AG, Rik Vyverman, realized the eFishery business model, which shortens the supply chain, can continue to disrupt the traditional aquaculture market in Indonesia. With this potential, Rik believes the company can achieve sustainable goals and tremendous growth.
