🌾🧑‍💻This Indonesian Startup is Betting on The Country’s Agricultural Sector

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Here’s what we got for you:

• 🌊 The SEA - Eratani - The Indonesian startup that is betting on the country’s agricultural sector

• ⛵ SEAppets - Threads, Instagram's text-based app, achieved 100 million sign-ups in just five days

• 💰 SEA Deals

• 🖼️ AI Image of the day

• 🐣 Tweet of the day

Markets 📈

The SEA 🌊

eFishery just became Indonesia’s latest unicorn. Can this agritech startup do the same?

I’m talking about Eratani.

🤷‍♂️ Who is Eratani?

• Founded in 2021 by Andrew Soeherman, Kevin Juan Tanggo Laksono (Chief Operating Officer of Eratani) and Angles Gani (Chief Strategy Officer of Eratani), Eratani is an agritech startup committed to transforming Indonesia’s agricultural sector

• The startup uses technology to help increase efficiency, sustainability and growth in Indonesia's agricultural industry, specifically focusing on rice cultivation

🌾How it works?

• Eratani provides funding, supply chain management, crop distribution and agricultural assistance to a network of 20,000 farmers across five provinces

• Their products include:

  • EraFarm - Helping farmers manage their agricultural activities more easily.

  • EraKios - Offering a partnership opportunity to help Indonesian farmers get the agricultural production facilities and land they need.

  • EraMarket - Partnership opportunity to supply daily food needs directly from Indonesian farmers

💰 Funding

• Eratani has recently raised $5.8 million in seed funding

• The investment will be used to expand its network of 20,000 rice farmers across five provinces

• This round of funding shows investors' confidence in the Indonesian agritech sector, which contributes 12.4% of the country's GDP

SEAppets ⛵

1. Threads, Instagram's text-based app, achieved 100 million sign-ups in just five days. It has yet to launch in the EU due to privacy concerns, and there are missing features. Despite this, its rapid growth suggests it is here to stay.

Instagram has 2.35 billion users so that is roughly a 4.25% conversion rate. Pretty impressive.

2. Catcha Digital, a Malaysia-based investment holding company, has formed a new business unit called "i-Gov" to develop technology solutions and software for the Malaysian government and public sector. It is in line with the Malaysian Prime Minister's announcement of the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Malaysia and Catcha Group Pte Ltd has maintained a meaningful dialogue with the Malaysian Government. In addition, Catcha Digital has also completed the acquisition of its wholly-owned subsidiary, iMedia Asia Sdn Bhd, which provides integrated advertising solutions to major brands and recorded a profit of MYR 10.28 million in FY2022.

3. Carsome and PolicyStreet have partnered to introduce Carsome Care+, a car personal accident coverage that covers car loan payments in the event of unemployment. The complimentary coverage is valid for a year and comes with additional protections, such as personal accident coverage of up to $2142 and car loan payments of up to $214 per month for a maximum of six months. PolicyStreet and Carsome hope to protect underinsured Malaysians and provide them with a worry-free car-buying experience.

SEA Deals 💰

1. eFishery, an aquaculture technology company based in Indonesia, has raised $200 million in its Series D funding round, achieving a $1 billion valuation and becoming the first unicorn of the global aquaculture industry. The round was supported by investors such as responsAbility, 500 Global, and Malaysia’s KWAP, as well as existing investors like Temasek, Northstar, and SoftBank. eFishery plans to expand its community of fish and shrimp farmers by 2025 and facilitate more aquaculture-related transactions through its platform.

2. Ni Hsin EV Tech Sdn. Bhd. and Boustead Technology Sdn. Bhd. have announced a three-year partnership to promote Ni Hsin's electric motorcycles, EBIXON EV Motorcycles, exclusively within Boustead Group's internal workforce. The purpose is to leverage Boustead Group to promote and market the products, and to adopt impactful technology with an environmental, social, and governance (ESG) agenda. The collaboration will help reduce the carbon footprint and create a green revenue stream in carbon trading.

3. Bitdefender, a global leader in cybersecurity, is acquiring Singapore-based Horangi Cyber Security in order to meet the increasing demand for cloud security solutions. Horangi's cloud-native platform, Horangi Warden, provides security for public cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. The company has raised a total of $23.1 million from investors such as Monk's Hill Ventures, Right Click Capital, and Provident Growth.

4. The Radical Fund, a climate-focused investor, has announced the first close of its first Southeast Asia vehicle. $7 million has been raised from family offices, corporates, foundations and individual investors. The fund is targeting $40 million and is currently looking to invest in pre-seed to pre-Series A ventures with an average ticket size of $250,000 to $500,000. The company is hiring team members in the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia, and is looking to announce its first investment in Q3.

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That’s a wrap for today. See you all tomorrow! 👋

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