B2B agriculture marketplace AgriAku raises USD 35 million Series A funding to scale its ecosystem and empower millions of local farmers
JAKARTA -- Jakarta-based business-to-business marketplace for farmers AgriAku has secured $35 million in a Series A funding round led by Alpha JWC Ventures as it looks to expand its team and product range, a top company executive told DealStreetAsia in an interview.
Existing backers Go-Ventures and MDI Ventures also joined the round, along with a slew of new investors such as BRI Ventures, Mandiri Capital Indonesia (MCI), K3, Thai Wah Ventures and Alto Partners.
"I'm a big believer in teamwork, so a lot of [the funding] will go towards ramping up our team. Also, having the right products is important. We fundamentally believe that better products would allow customers and merchants to transact more seamlessly. So we are also set to pilot a few projects," said Irvan Kolonas, president at AgriAku.
"We want to move to output as well, to complete our vision," Kolonas added.
Different from other agriculture technology companies such as TaniHub and farm-to-table e-commerce startup Sayurbox, AgriAku currently trades goods used in the production side of agriculture, including fertilizer, seeds and other tools needed by farmers.
With the new funding, AgriAku is looking to branch out to the "output" side of the business, meaning to trade farmers' crop yields. Going forward, the startup also has plans to offer financial products.
"We believe one day, maybe in the next 10 years, we can sell seeds or fertilizer directly to farmers, but the reality today is many farmers are not yet digital-friendly," Kolonas said. "What we should do instead is to partner with farm shops."
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