(L-R) Semaai Co-Founders Muhammad Yoga Anindito, Gaurav Batra, Abhishek Gupta
Semaai, a startup providing agri-tech solutions for farmers and rural MSMEs in Indonesia, has closed a bridge funding round led by Accion Venture Lab and XA Network, with participation from existing investors Sequoia Surge and Beenext.
This brings the startup’s total funding raised since inception to US$2.9 million.
The new funds will be used to support Semaai’s product expansion, which includes building digital advisory services for agri-retailers and farmers, as well as a new app to enable farmers to access agricultural inputs that are affordable and located nearby.
Semaai provides an integrated digital ecosystem that addresses supply chain disruptions and fills knowledge gaps for Indonesia’s agri MSMEs, such as rural agri-input retailers, known locally as toko tanis, and the smallholder farmers they serve.
Through its network of rural partner MSMEs, the startup provides “a full suite of agricultural services”, such as customised consultancy, productivity tools, farming inputs such as seed and fertiliser products and access to better markets.
Also Read: Indonesian agritech startup EdenFarm secures US$13.5M pre-Series B
Semaai’s solution encompasses three key services that address systemic issues within the country’s US$100 billion agriculture industry. It provides toko tanis and farmers with a B2B digital marketplace for agricultural inputs such as seed and fertilisers, access to better agricultural produce markets, and agronomy advisory services to improve their farming practices.
Since its launch in August 2021, Semaai has built a network of toko tanis and smallholder farmers in more than 2,980 villages in Central Java, with the number of active agri-retailer and MSME users on Semaai’s digital marketplace currently serving 2.6 million farmers in the region.
As per a press release, in 2022, monthly transactions on Semaai’s marketplace grew by 37 times, and monthly revenues for Semaai increased by 20 times. Semaai also purchases produce from its network of farmers and distributes it to large e-commerce companies in Indonesia. Profits from these sales are channelled back into the business, ensuring a sustainable cycle of growth.
“Agri-MSMEs play an important role as aggregators and are often much more tech-savvy than farmers, but they lack an all-in-one solution for agronomy, product knowledge and price transparency. We believe that empowering them will help these businesses better serve farmers,” said Muhammad Yoga Anindito, Co-Founder and CEO of Semaai.
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