Gokomodo Enliven Agritech Industry Competition in Indonesia

Agriculture is one of the main economic sectors of the archipelago and the second largest contributor to the country’s economy. Interestingly, this sector has also shown resilience in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Over the last few decades, agriculture has undergone many rapid technological advances. Starting from the side of financial inclusion — from unbankable farmers to being bankable — to the use of technology platforms to increase productivity.

Gokomodo is one of the B2B agri-commerce companies for supply chain and agribusiness services in Indonesia. Through its platform, the company offers procurement, buying and selling, and distribution solutions.

Its mission is to open the widest possible access for stakeholders to quality agricultural products with easy access and competitive prices.

Gokomodo’s commerce platform offers a variety of products related to agricultural needs — from fertilizers, herbicides, seeds to civil materials, safety equipment, and more.

Book Initial Funding

Based on information from regulatory data, the company has received initial funding of $1 million or around 15 billion Rupiah from East Ventures and Waresix. In this regard, the relevant parties are still reluctant to comment.

Gokomodo has three main business units, namely a digital procurement platform (e-procurement), agri-commerce (e-commerce specifically for agricultural/agricultural products), and a hub as a distribution network.

Established in 2019, Gokomodo’s eProcurement platform system continues to grow rapidly and has more than 2,000 sellers and dozens of buyers, especially for palm oil products.

Its ecosystem has been trusted by big players in the sector, such as Sampoerna Agro, First Resources Ltd., Bumitama Gunajaya Agro Ltd., and Global Palm Resources.

In an official statement, Gokomodo Co-Founder & CEO Samuel Tirtasaputra revealed, the company is trying to bridge the obstacles faced by buyers and sellers.

“Digitalization of business processes to create a digital ecosystem that benefits both parties is a solution that we can offer. Not only for companies, but we are also developing a digital ecosystem that can be well utilized by smallholders.”

Gokomodo has a vision to provide easy access to quality agricultural products, by becoming the leading supply chain platform and service in agribusiness and commodities.

In 2022, it will also continue to carry out business expansion, accompanied by improvements to the Gokomodo platform features in order to get the best solution for users.

Indonesia has an agricultural area of ​​42.3 hectares, a third of which (16 million hectares) is oil palm plantations. Various parties and levels of society are actively involved as stakeholders, ranging from plantation companies, Village Unit Cooperatives (KUD), Farmers’ Shops, to Farmers.

On the other hand, the agricultural sector also contributes 14% to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), employs a third of the total workforce in Indonesia, and 93% of agricultural entrepreneurs are small individual farmers.

Last April, Gokomodo officially opened its first hub by cooperating with the Mesuji Village Unit Cooperative (KUD), South Sumatra, as a partner.

Investment in Indonesia’s Agritech Sector

Recently, the performance of startups in the country has been rocked by unpleasant issues. One of them came from the agritech startup Tanihub, which earlier this year had to make a business overhaul by stopping operational activities in its two warehouses in Bandung and Bali.

As a result of this policy, the company was also reported to have laid off employees. However, funding in this sector is not simply shrinking.

In addition to Gokomodo, several startups that have a focus on the agriculture sector have also managed to secure funding, including Agriaku (GoVentures and MDI Arise), ARIA (GK-Plug and Play Indonesia and East Ventures), PasarMikro (Gayo Capital and 1982 Ventures), and Eratani ( Trihill Capital and Memories Capital).

The list above proves that investors’ interest in investing in this sector is not consistent. In addition, Indonesia’s agricultural sector is also proven to have enormous potential to be worked on.

According to McKinsey’s 2020 research, the use of digital technology in the agricultural sector can have a positive impact on farmers and increase economic output by up to 94,846 trillion Rupiah or $6.6 billion per year.