Will Be The Latest Unicorn In Indonesia, EFishery Boss: This Is Just A Bonus

JAKARTA - In the midst of the difficulty of funding entering the startup, PT Multidaya Teknologi Nusantara (eFishery) is rumored to be the newest unicorn in Indonesia.

To become a unicorn, startups must reach a valuation of above 1 billion US dollars. Related to this, eFishery is now the largest startup in the world for fishery cultivation technology.

Responding to this, eFishery CEO Gibran Huzaifah said he could not comment much. Because, according to him, the assessment was conveyed by external parties.

"If that's the case, I can't comment, later I can comment if it's real. If I comment now, I'll say this later," he told VOI when met in Jakarta, Wednesday, March 29.

According to Gibran, if eFishery achieves this later, it is just a bonus. He said that his party would continue to focus on the impact (impact) given by eFishery to cultivators in the country.

"Essentially, from us, this unicorn is more of a bonus, if it is later, our focus will be more on building the impact, because the impact is building, the business is good, the cultivators are good, finally investors, right, are interested," he said.

"Investors are interested in being able to value our company well in the current conditions. Yes, hopefully it will be a bonus, that's it," added Gibran.

Until now, continued Gibran, his party had not thought of becoming the newest unicorn in Indonesia. "So, we never had a target later to become the next unicorn and this is our biggest achievement, that's it. So, just flow," he concluded.

For your information, In 2013, eFishery raised initial round funding from several investor angelies. Then, in 2016, eFishery raised $2.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Aqua-Spark, a global investment fund focused on sustainable acculturing.

The funds were then used by the company to increase the production of IoT devices and expand their operations in Indonesia.

In 2018, eFishery raised $4 million in a Series B funding round led by Wavemaker Partners and UOB Venture Management. The funds are used to develop new products and services, including mobile applications for farmers and markets for buying and selling fish and shrimp.

Then, in 2022, eFishery raised 90 million US dollars in the Series C funding round. The fresh funds were used by the company to expand its operations in Indonesia and develop new technologies to further optimize aquatic operations.

It didn't stop there, in the same year, eFishery also received a short-term loan (loan) worth IDR 500 billion from Bank DBS Indonesia. For DBS Indonesia, this is the first loan for the aquatech sector, while for eFishery is the bank's first loan facility.