Indonesia-based aquaculture technology provider eFishery secured $90m yesterday in a series C round co-led by internet and telecommunications group SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, as money continues to roll into aquaculture technology in Asia.
Temasek and Sequoia Capital India co-led the round, which was filled out by e-commerce and online services group GoTo’s corporate venturing subsidiary, Go-Ventures, as well as Northstar Group, Aqua-Spark and Wavemaker Partners.
Founded in 2013, eFishery has developed software that helps shrimp and fish farmers monitor their operations, optimising the efficiency of feeding and yield days, which it claims lowers costs and improves income by up to 45%.
The company also provides financial tools such as eFund, which gives fish farmers access to buy now, pay later services to source supplies and tools to reach markets.
Proceeds of the round will be used to scale up eFishery’s platform and grow its engineering and product development teams, with a view to expanding into 10 new markets including China and India.
While the global aquaculture market is projected to grow to approximately $248bn by 2027, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.4% from 2020 to 2027, according to Global Industry Analysts, there are sharp differences in growth rates by region.
A European market like Germany, for example, is projected to have a CAGR of 2.7% over that time period, while China’s aquaculture growth is forecasted at 4.9%.
Gibran Huzaifah, co-founder and chief executive of eFishery, said: “We are focused on increasing farmers’ productivity. Through the introduction of new technologies, we are streamlining the fish and shrimp farming business, making the industry more effective, efficient and sustainable.
“This new funding will allow us to scale our impact, expand regionally and achieve our target of being a leading aquaculture technology company by improving the livelihoods of the farmers that we empower.”
Another Indonesia-based aquaculture technology developer, Jala Tech, raised $6m in an October 2021 series A round led by Althelia Sustainable Ocean Fund, which invested alongside Real Tech Fund and the Meloy Fund.
Domestic competitor Delos secured an undisclosed sum the same month from Arise, the venture capital vehicle formed by telecommunications firm Telkom Indonesia’s MDI Ventures unit and VC firm Finch Capital, as well as iSeed Asia, Hendra Kwik and Irwan Kolonas.
Elsewhere in Asia, India-based aquaculture product marketplace Aquaconnect received $4m in a July 2021 pre-series A round co-led by Flourish Ventures and Rebright Partners that also featured AgFunder, 6G Capital, Hatch and Omnivore.
Go-Ventures had previously led a series B round of undisclosed size for eFishery in August 2020 with Northstar Group that included Aqua-Spark and Wavemaker Partners to push its overall funding to over $19m.
Anna Lo, investment director at SoftBank Investment Advisers, which manages Vision Fund 2, said: “Indonesia is one of the world’s largest producers of fish and we believe its aquaculture industry can play a meaningful role in feeding the world’s growing population.
“EFishery is pioneering the adoption of technology for local fish and shrimp farmers with a complete, integrated platform that supports them to improve productivity across feed supply, production and the sale of fresh produce.”
