Boosted by Corona, TaniHub Startup’s Income Soars 639%

The agricultural startup TaniHub recorded an annual increase in the gross income of 639% (year on year/yoy) in 2020. This is due to increased service demand during the corona pandemic. “There is a surge in demand for services on the platform, especially the business to consumer (B2C) sector,” said TaniHub Group President Pamitra Wineka during a virtual press conference, Thursday (21/1).

TaniHub also attracted more than 250 thousand new users last year. Services that are flooded with demand are the agricultural product marketplace, TaniHub. At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic or March 2020, sales of herbal plants increased by 20% compared to before the coronavirus.

The company noticed an increase in service demand, thus improving the platform. One of them is providing delivery services within the same day or same-day delivery. “We are speeding up all order processes,” said Pamitra.

TaniHub also relies on a processing and packaging unit, aka processing and packing center (PPC) in Malang, East Java to maximize its supply chain. With the PPC, companies can directly export products from farmers.

Tanifund Remains in Demand by Farmers

Apart from the e-commerce business line, TaniFund’s financial technology (fintech lending) services remain in demand. Loan disbursement reached IDR 89.2 billion through 243 projects. Pamitra claims that funding from TaniFund can increase the production of 2,500 assisted farmers by 20%. Farmers’ income has also increased by 25%.

Until now, 46 thousand farmers have joined the TaniHub Group ecosystem. The company targets the business to grow beyond 2020 and get new investment. “This year’s funding will be the largest, we are currently due diligence,” said Pamitra. TaniHub Group received series A funding of US$ 17 million or around IDR 283 billion in April 2020.

This investment was led by Openspace Ventures and Intudo Ventures, and was followed by other investors such as UOB Venture Management, Vertex Ventures, BRI Ventures, Tenaya Capital and Golden Gate Ventures. With this fresh fund, the total equity raised by TaniHub Group has reached US$ 29 million or around IDR 481 billion since 2016.

TaniFund Co-Founder and CEO Ivan Arie Sustiawan said the company will intensively expand outside Java, namely Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Sumatra. “This is to balance market conditions,” he said. TaniHub Group will also build infrastructure in the form of distribution centers outside Java in the next two years.

Currently, the company has five distribution centers in Jakarta, Bogor, Bandung, Yogyakarta and Surabaya. “We want to open, not only focus on Java and Bali. But touch Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi,” Ivan said last year during a virtual press conference last year (24/8/2020).

The Best Selling Product from TaniHub

Pamitra said that in 2020 the company’s services on the delivery of orders on the same day (same-day delivery) managed to record more than 90 percent. Then, what agricultural products or products were the bestsellers in the past year?

There are eight products, namely chicken, eggs, dragon fruit, avocado, melon, leaf vegetables, spices and rice. According to Pramitra, there are two main factors that make the eight products in great demand.

“First, because most of them are basic necessities and are in great demand by the public during the pandemic. Like rice and eggs, a lot of them are stocked at home. Spices and vegetables are used to maintain immunity. Second, we do stock a lot of these products, so that when there are many requests, we can immediately fulfill it,” he explained.

What has been achieved in 2020 has not made TaniHub Group slow down its run. Pamitra Wineka added, “The achievements we have achieved in 2020 do not make us relax in the future. We will continue to increase our efforts and our role for Indonesian agriculture, although perhaps 2021 will also have its own challenges.”