Aquatech startup JALA Tech announced $6 million funding or equivalent to 85.7 billion Rupiah. A number of global venture capitalists focusing on impact investment were involved in this round, including The Meloy Fund (managed by US based company, Deliberate Capital), Real Tech Fund (Japan), and Mirova (France).
Previously, JALA has also been supported by a number of investors, including Hatch Blue and 500 Startups since 2019.
In an official statement, JALA Tech’s Co-Founder & CEO, Liris Maduningtyas said, “We are delighted to receive this fresh funding, which will play an important role in helping us achieve our goal of developing new ways to improve the industry and its impact on society.”
In a general note, JALA develops technology in the form of hardware and software to help farmers boost up production. Some of these include water quality measuring tools, micro bubble generators, business recording applications and analytic tools. These devices can be connected and operated through applications with the Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities.
One of JALA’s target markets is shrimp farmers. It is said that Indonesia is one of the 5 largest shrimp producers in the world along with China, Ecuador, India and Vietnam. To date, many problems related to shrimp farming remain unresolved, such as pollution caused by the release of agricultural wastes in rivers and seas, disease outbreaks and mortality, inefficient value chains, low added value for farmers, and traceability of products that are poor limited, and transparency.
“JALA aims to contribute to solving some of these problems to make the shrimp value chain more sustainable, transparent, efficient and fair,” he said.
Regional expansion
Previously, in mid-2020, JALA had stated its intention to enter the regional market. It is started with a branch office in Thailand. Liris said that the company has expanded its business to Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Ecuador since 2019. However, it is still limited to a business agreement between the company with the B2B and B2C clients in the country.
As of July 2020, the company said, JALA’s user base have now reached more than 6 thousand farmers and over 100 IoT hardware devices are used.
In fact, this achievement blows a fresh air for the local cultivation industry. With technology and digital-based innovations, it is expected that the existing potential can be more optimized. Apart from JALA, other startups have also introduced innovations in the aquaculture sector, one of which is eFishery with its flagship product, automatic fish feed. With better investor support, eFishery is now entering the funding and online grocery business aiming to provide solutions from upstream to downstream.
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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian