eFishery, an online platform for fish and shrimp farmers in Indonesia, has announced the closing of its Series B financing round, co-led by Go-Ventures (a VC fund with gojek being its cornerstone investor) and Singapore-based PE firm Northstar Group.
Existing investors, including Wavemaker Partners and Aqua-Spark (a sustainable aquaculture investment fund), also joined the round.
The size of the investment has not been disclosed.
The money will be used to strengthen its product development and grow the team. “This new funding will allow us to grow the company, roll out across Indonesia, and achieve our vision of being a leading aquaculture intelligence company,” said Gibran Huzaifah, Co-founder and CEO of eFishery.
Launched in 2013, Bandung-based eFishery offers an end-to-end platform providing fish and shrimp farmers with access to feed, financing, and markets.
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It has four main products:
eFisheryFeeder, a device that enables automated feeding for fish and shrimp, which can be monitored and scheduled via a smartphone;
eFisheryFeed, which provides farmers with quality fish feed at affordable prices;
eFisheryFund, which helps farmers gain access to funds to grow their business;
eFisheryFresh, an online platform to connect Indonesian fish farmers with their customers (both end consumers and merchants).
The startup recently set up eFisheryPoint, a one-stop physical hub located near the farmers to allow them to access the firm’s products easily.
At these hubs, farmers can purchase eFishery products, sell their fish, or participate in other engagement activities, such as arranging product training, product demos or repairs.
Currently, there are 30 hubs in Indonesia, and it plans to open 100 new ones across Indonesia by end-2020.
“eFishery’s products support tens of thousands of fish and shrimp farms in over 180 cities, based in 24 provinces across Indonesia. There are some 3.3 million fish farms across Indonesia. Our most effective sales channel is marketing our products directly to the farmers by arranging field visits. With the launch of eFisheryPoint, which allows us to engage with farmers easier, as well as our efforts to penetrate the domestic market further, we are aiming for a 10-fold increase in our business,” added Huzaifah.
eFishery raised a pre-Series A round in 2015 and a US$4-million Series A round in the late 2018.
The firm also has plans to double its team of 250 employees by the end of 2020.
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The business has been profitable for the past two years.
“Although we started some pilot trials in Bangladesh, Thailand, and Vietnam, our main focus for the remainder of 2020 will be to secure our position in Indonesia through scaling up our products and creating more strategic collaborations. Once we have built a strong and replicable model throughout Indonesia, we will then be ready to explore expanding regionally,” Huzaifah concluded.
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Image Credit: eFishery
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