Agritech startup focused on supply chain solutions, AgriAku, announced a Pre-Series A funding of $6 million or more than 86 billion Rupiah led by Go-Ventures. The previous investor, MDI Arise also participated, followed by MDI Centauri, Mercy Corps Social Venture Fund, and several business angels.
The company plans to use this fresh fund on three purposes; Hiring more talents in the operations, supply chain, product and technology areas; Strengthen the penetration of agri-supply B2B marketplaces across the country; and Growing innovation and capability of the product ecosystem to improve the agricultural value chain in Indonesia.
Indonesia’s agricultural industry is considered to have a significant contribution to the economy, around 13.5% of GDP. However, the upstream agricultural market is highly fragmented with unorganized value chains for agricultural supplies such as seeds, fertilizers and chemicals. Farmers, suppliers and retailers are facing the same problems – supply and price instability, inefficient manual workflows, and limited access to formal finance.
“AgriAku’s B2B input market platform is ideally positioned to increase price transparency and market access for all stakeholders in the agricultural input sector. Over time, we hope that AgriAku can significantly increase farmer productivity and improve farmers’ standard of living,” Go-Ventures’ Partner , Aditya Kamath said.
AgriAku, founded by Irvan Kolonas and Danny Handoko in 2021, holds a mission to create a transparent network between all stakeholders in the agricultural product supply chain system. They’re using an approach that builds a market called “Toko Tani”, directlu connected with first-tier producers or distributors. This method is claimed to allow farmers have a complete catalog of agricultural products at a much more affordable price.
In late February 2022, the company officially introduced an update for the AgriAku untuk Mitra app on the Google Play Store. This platform provides the most complete range of agricultural products compared to the common farmer shops, ranging from seeds, medicines and nutrients, fertilizers and agricultural tools. With Agriaku’s reporting and cash register system, agents can also make accurate digital records to simplify work and accelerate business development.
Agri Aku is not the first agritech funded by the Gojek’s investment arm. Previously, Go-Ventures also led the follow-on funding of Segari online grocery and several startups with similar business models, including eFishery (Fresh), FoodMarketHub, and KitaBeli. This strategic action has proven Gojek’s mission to strengthen the online grocery line.
Indonesia’s agritech startups
For hundreds of years, Indonesia has been known as an agricultural region and has exported many commodities and foodstuffs around the world. However, the agricultural industry is still considered not to provide a fair opportunity for farmers to improve their quality of life and business to date. As the world’s population increases to 8 billion, with Indonesia contributing around 280 million, the role of the agricultural sector will be even greater to meet the growing human needs.
In a publication entitled “Yielding Next Gen. Agri Conglomerate Leveraging Tech Orchestration”, Arise highlighted four main pain points in the agricultural value chain. These are limited access to capital, fragmented and inefficient supply chains, lack of access to technology, and price uncertainty due to climate change.
While this sector held enormous potential, its value could exceed $500 billion of global GDP by 2030. Asia Pacific alone is projected to contribute 8.2% of the total value. On this trend, investment for Argitech continues to increase from year to year worldwide. In 2020, there were approximately 834 funding deals, accounting for more than $6.7 billion.
Some of the agritech players are getting more popular in this country and getting listed as a soonicorn, including Tanihub, Eden Farm, Aruna, and eFishery. The newcomer, Semaai has also secured fresh funding from Surge and Beenext.
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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian
