PasarMikro Founder Dian Wong (C)
Indonesia-based agricultural commodity marketplace PasarMikro has secured an undisclosed funding amount from existing investor 1982 Ventures.
The startup will channel the funding for hiring and reaching out to more farming communities in Indonesia.
PasarMikro was established as a pilot project in 2020 by Dien Wong, who co-founded the Indonesian game and application development company Altermyth in 2003.
PasarMikro has grown to a B2B aggregated agribusiness marketplace with built-in finance. It provides various services to farmers and merchants for their daily transactions involving bookkeeping, lending, and a marketplace for selling their products.
“PasarMikro is looking after Indonesia’s main providers, farmers and traders who are often overlooked,” said Wong.
Also read: Need of the hour: How agritech platforms can protect farmers from climate change
As the pandemic generated tailwinds for Indonesia’s US$130 billion agriculture market, the startup claims to have helped farmers trade and finance the distribution of over 5,000 tonnes of eggs and other commodities.
“We have not seen an inclusive financing model in Southeast Asia achieve what appears to be product-market fit and begin scaling as early as PasarMikro,” said 1982 Managing Partner Herston Elton Powers.
PasarMikro said it has formed a partnership with Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) and Rabo Foundation (a social fund sponsored by the European agricultural bank Rabo Bank) to provide smallholder farmers with needed financing to secure their future.
According to “AgFunder ASEAN Agrifoodtech Investment Report 2020”, agritech startups raised more than US$165 million in 26 deals in 2020. As reported by WorldBank, agriculture is a significant sector in Indonesia, contributing roughly 14 per cent of the country’s GDP, employing one-third of the workforce, and dominated by smallholder farmers (93 per cent).
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Image Credit: PasarMikro
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