Moosa Genetics, an animal genomics and biotechnology startup based in Indonesia, has on Monday announced that the company raised funding led by East Ventures, a venture capital firm focusing on Southeast Asia.
Moosa Genetics said in a statement that the funding also saw the participation from angel investors.
According to the statement, this funding will be allocated to build laboratory, team, marketing, and wagyu partnership to fulfill the demand for its customers.
Moosa Genetics has operated in two locations within West Sumatera and will partner with breeders in every region.
“This investment validates our vision to advance the cattle industry’s landscape in Indonesia,
“We believe that Moosa Genetics is at the forefront of unlocking the full potential of local cattle breeding,” said Ivan R Sini Chairman and Co-Founder of Moosa Genetics, and Chairman of the Indonesian Genomics Association.
“Through our modern animal reproductive and molecular technologies, we enable lower cost and better meat yield and quality, eventually bringing substantial benefits to the industry and consumers,
“We look forward to bringing more excitement in this space in the future,” he added.
Moosa Genetics was founded in 2016 by R Sini, supported by Co-Chief Executive Officer Deddy F. Kurniawan, Co-Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Jeremia Michael Sutandy, Chief Scientific Officer Arief Boediono, and Chief Geneticist Officer Ir. Sigit Prastowo.
It is a biotechnology firm specializing in genetically improving local cattle and dairy herds using modern animal reproductive and molecular technologies.
Since its inception in 2016, the company has quickly established itself as an industry leader, offering new solutions to help farmers and breeders improve the genetic quality of their herds.
According to the statement, Indonesia’s cattle industry is highly fragmented and roughly 80 percent is dominated by smallholder farmers, concentrated mostly on the island of Java – East Java province alone accounts for 30 percent of Indonesia’s cattle population.
It is noted that smallholder farmers often raise cattle for their savings rather than for the commercial market, which significantly impedes the potential of the domestic meat supply.
Most cattle breeders are also low-skilled farmers with low-input, low-output production systems and face fundamental challenges in expanding their cattle businesses.
This includes limited access to finance and capital, the lack of collateral, and a local financial sector that is cautious in providing loans due to the inherent risks.
As a result, domestic production can only satisfy about 40 percent of Indonesian demand for beef, which leads to Indonesia’s dependency on importing beef, especially from Australia.
Moosa Genetics presents biotech-enabled innovation in revolutionizing cattle and beef breeding in Indonesia.
The firm leverages embryo transfer technology and innovative gene selection techniques like CRISPR, a technology to selectively modify the DNA to revolutionize cattle breeding and beef production.
By doing so, Moosa Genetics improves meat yield and quality and, at the same time, also reduces the costs.
Moosa Genetics also recognizes the complexity of breeding and acknowledges that a single matrix of genetic improvement can not determine the ideal version of local cattle for Indonesia.
It opined that the widespread expectation of traits such as disease resilience and superior meat marbling must be empirically proven for their economic value.
To tackle that challenge, Moosa Genetics emphasizes the importance of collaboration between industry stakeholders, the platform provider, and dedicated researchers to comprehensively assess and measure the magnitude of improvement over the current cattle breeding standards.
“Moosa Genetics’ innovative approach to cattle breeding through biotechnology has the potential to revolutionize the livestock industry, addressing critical challenges and demands in agriculture while ensuring sustainable food production and improving domestic food security,
“With big opportunity presents in Indonesia, we believe Moosa Genetics is driving the positive change and growth in this space,” said Avina Sugiarto, Partner at East Ventures.
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