In Indonesia, agri fintech lender iGrow and aquatech firm eFishery have teamed up to help fish farmers access loans, while Enterprise Singapore has teamed up with Stellar Lifestyle to jointly fund startups innovating for the public transport network.
iGrow partners with eFishery to enable loans for fish farmers
LinkAja-owned agri P2P lender iGrow has partnered with the aquatech startup eFishery, enabling fish farmers to take loans from iGrow’s lenders.
“Through this collaboration, we hope that eFishery’s fish farmer partners can optimise their business and output with support and mentoring from eFishery, as well as with financing and additional capital distributed by lenders through iGrow,” said iGrow CEO Donny Fernando.
The partnership comes amidst the many complaints from iGrow’s retail lenders who are complaining that they are not earning the investment returns and debt repayments that they were promised. To DealStreetAsia, an iGrow spokesperson acknowledged that there were payment delays and the company has notified affected lenders.
eFishery is a major player in Indonesia’s aquatech sector. It offers a data-driven smart feeding solution that helps farmers provide accurate dosages of feed to their fish. The firm also provides loans to fish farmers through eFishery Fund.
Earlier this month, eFishery had raised a 500-billion-rupiah ($32.76 million) short-term loan facility from Bank DBS Indonesia to expand its services in the country.
Enterprise SG, Stellar Lifestyle partner to support startups
Enterprise Singapore and Stellar Lifestyle, a business arm of SMRT [a multi-modal public transport operator in the city-state] have launched a joint funding partnership. The two firms will allocate S$500,000 ($350,949) to support startups developing innovation and solutions that can be deployed within the MRT network.
Stellar Lifestyle manages the majority of transit retail spaces within the MRT network. The solutions are expected to help MRT tenants lower operational costs, improve profitability, enhance customer data analytics, and implement sustainable practices.
The programme will help startups conceptualise, prototype, and develop their solutions. The programme has selected five startups — 1Cool, which provides eco-friendly cooling solutions; Reachbots Automation, which manufactures mobile robots for hard-to-access confined spaces; Singrow which focuses on agritech; Teredo Analytics, which provides IoT and AI solutions to maintain lifts; and Waffle Technologies, which offers Point-Of-Sale (POS) for F&B retailers.