eFishery Hires Former CEO of GoPay, Targeting 900% Growth

eFishery appointed former GoPay CEO Aldi Haryopratomo as commissioner. This startup is targeting the business to grow 10 times or 900%. CEO of eFishery Gibran Huzaifah assessed that Aldi led GoPay to grow rapidly. He believes that Aldi’s experience in managing a Gojek subsidiary is relevant for eFishery’s business which is in its growth stage.

“We hope Aldi can provide direction so that eFishery grows to a scale of one million fish cultivators over the next three years,” Gibran was quoted as saying in a press release, Thursday (21/1). Moreover, eFishery has obtained Series B funding from venture capital owned by Gojek, Go-Venture, and Northstar Group in August 2020.

With this fresh fund, the company is targeting to grow 10 times and expand to other countries. The injection of funds will also be allocated for the provision of integrated services, starting from cultivation operations, financing to the distribution of the products of millions of fish cultivators.

This is in order to launch the integrated Smart Farming Solution service in 201. The service is to increase the efficiency and productivity of shrimp commodity cultivation. “eFishery can help Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) which are still difficult to reach without technology,” said Aldi.

Last year, eFishery recorded a fourfold increase in revenue on an annual basis (year on year/yoy). This startup claims, fish farmers who enter the ecosystem can increase production capacity by up to 26%. Meanwhile, income can increase up to 45%. Now, the startup has supported 10 thousand farmers with tens of thousands of fish ponds in more than 180 cities.

In the last two years, eFishery explored other solutions that create added value for farmers, using data collected by smart feeders. From this data analysis, eFishery penetrated the e-commerce business through eFisheryFresh and eFisheryFeed, as well as fintech lending through eFisheryFund.

The eFisheryFeed marketplace connects farmers with producers directly. Meanwhile, eFisheryFresh’s business-to-business (B2B) platform allows them to sell fish directly to restaurants, hotels and other culinary businesses.

Targeting 100 Efisherypoints by the End of Last Year

The company also has 50 eFisheryPoints as of October, which is a location for farmers to get eFishery products, sell fish and take the training. The startup is targeting 100 eFisheryPoints by the end of 2020.

Apart from the growth target, the company appointed Aldi because he is Gibran’s mentor. He first met Aldi in 2015, when he was elected to be Endeavor Entrepreneur. Aldi was selected as the Endeavor Entrepreneur of the Year in 2016.

Meanwhile, Gibran held the same title last year. Endeavor Indonesia is an organization that leads the high impact entrepreneurship movement. Globally, Endeavor has a presence in more than 34 countries in Latin America, the Middle East, North Africa, South Africa, Asia and Europe.

In total, there are 2,000 entrepreneurs who are members of about 60 thousand selected globally. Aldi was selected as the Endeavor Entrepreneur of the Year when he built your RUMA startup or your Micro Business Partners, which is now known as Mapan.

This startup aims to open access for low-income people to meet their daily needs. Mapan was acquired by Gojek in 2017. Then, Aldi was appointed as CEO of GoPay. However, Aldi resigned from the post earlier this year.

PPKM Optimists Give Business Opportunities

eFishery is believed to have had a positive impact from the Enactment of Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM). This was conveyed by Gibran Huzaifah, Co-Founder and CEO of eFishery. According to him, their business line is one of the few industries that has survived the Covid-19 pandemic.

He continued that there would be a four-fold increase in sales of fish in 2020 because more and more people are starting to realize the importance of high nutritional food for health.

“Apart from that, implementing PPKM will also make people spend more time at home and cooking their own food. Two things are what make our business survive in the midst of this pandemic,” he said, Thursday (21/1/2021).