Indonesian aquatech startup eFishery has announced raising a for 500-billion-rupiah ($32.76 million) short-term loan facility from Bank DBS Indonesia.
This is the first loan facility raised by eFishery since its inception in 2013. The startup plans to use the money to expand its services in Indonesia, according to a statement on Friday.
Bank DBS Indonesia director Kunardy Lie said the cooperation between Bank DBS Indonesia and eFishery will support the aquatech industry in Indonesia. “With the loan facility, we hope to leverage eFishery’s expansion, improve the productivity of fish and prawn cultivators, and create sustainable food security,” Lie said.
Meanwhile, eFishery co-founder and CEO Gibran Huzaifah said eFishery has a goal to solve the challenges of sustainable food security, including a revolution in aquatech and improving the livelihood of fish and prawn cultivators. This loan facility will help eFishery realise those goals, he added.
“The loan facility will also help us develop products and services globally,” Huzaifah said.
eFishery offers a smart feeding solution that helps farmers provide accurate dosage of feed to their fish or shrimps based on recorded data, such as daily feed usage, the type and brand of feed that the farmers use, how many fish they produce, fish behaviour and their appetite, stock density, mortality rate, and so on.
The company has also diversified into fishery grocery (eFishery Fresh), fish and shrimp feed 9eFisheryFeed) and providing loans to aquaculture farmers (eFishery Fund).
The company claims to have deployed thousands of smart feeders, serving over 30,000 farmers across 24 provinces in Indonesia to date. In addition, more than 7,000 farmers have been supported by the company’s eFund service, with the total loan approved exceeding $28 million.
In January 2022, eFishery raised $90 million in its Series C round co-led by Singapore state investor Temasek, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Sequoia Capital India. Existing investors, including the Northstar Group, Go-Ventures, Aqua-Spark and Wavemaker Partners, also participated in the round.
As part of the round, the startup raised $80 million in fresh funding, according to its Singapore-registered entity’s filings with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA).