Aruna Announces Additional Series A Funding of 431 Billion Rupiah

Aruna announced the acquisition of additional funding for a series A round worth $30 million or around 431 billion Rupiah led by Vertex Ventures. Also joining were a number of previous investors such as Prosus Ventures, AC Ventures, East Ventures (Growth Fund), IndogenCapital, SMDV, and SIG Venture Capital.

This new investment brings the total series A funding raised by Aruna to reach $65 million or 934 billion Rupiah. Because, in July 2021, the company has also raised an initial series A funding of US$ 35 million. 

According to the data we have obtained, Aruna’s current valuation is in the range of more than $200 million. The fresh funds will be used to boost expansion to various regions in Indonesia.

While increasing Aruna’s market share in the global market. In addition, they will use the funds to recruit local talents in building sustainable fisheries technology and infrastructure from upstream to downstream.

“This additional funding round proves investor confidence in Indonesia’s potential as the largest maritime country as well as proves Aruna’s role as a pioneer in this sector. Aruna is committed to continuing to build a wider impact for Indonesia, especially coastal communities,” said Co-Founder & CEO Aruna Farid Naufal Aslam.

It’s in line with the government’s plans to encourage an inclusive and sustainable economy by encouraging the implementation of technology throughout the country.

He continued, “Our vision is to target Indonesia as the world’s maritime axis and we hope to achieve this by revolutionizing the fisheries supply chain, building financial inclusion and encouraging the implementation of sustainable fisheries,” he continued.

By 2021, Aruna has built 100 fishing communities with more than 26 thousand registered fishermen. They have also opened five thousand job vacancies in rural areas, especially coastal areas.

Its production is sold to enterprise-scale buyers in eight countries in Southeast Asia, East Asia, North America and the Middle East. Last year, they also sold 44 million kilograms of fisherman’s catch to more than 8 countries. Until now, Aruna has operated in 27 provinces throughout Indonesia.

Fasten B2B And B2C Business Models

Established in 2016, Aruna acts as a one-stop-shop and fisheries aggregator to streamline the supply chain of fishery products from fishermen to the global market. Since the last 5 years in business, Aruna claims to have increased up to 400x.

Their mainstay service is the sale of fisherman’s catch products. Aruna’s system allows businesses to place orders in bulk (B2B) — including for export purposes overseas.

In addition, now they also serve personal orders for smaller quantities (B2C). In addition to fresh fish, Aruna has also started exploring processed products by empowering rural communities with an agenda to help improve the economy of coastal communities.

The company’s mission is to make the ocean a better source of life for all with the Sea ForAll campaign.

“We are committed to building infrastructure that supports sustainable fisheries, because we believe that profit will be achieved by balancing humans and the environment,” said Co-Founder & Chief Sustainability Officer Aruna Utari Octavianty.

Startups in the Fishery Sector Get the Attention of Investors

As a maritime country, the size of the fishery market share in Indonesia is indeed very large. Digitalization, which is starting to look mature, has also created confidence for investors to support startups that have a vision to democratize the sector.

Earlier this year eFishery also received funding of 1.2 trillion Rupiah. As is known, eFisherydevelops a number of technological tools and digital supply chain systems to help fish/shrimp farmers improve their business.

JALA Tech also in November 2021 announced funding of IDR 85.7 billion from a number of impact investors. And one month earlier, DELOS received seed funding from Arise and MDI Ventures.