Semaai, an Indonesian agritech startup, has raised $4.7 million in a mix of equity and debt financing.

CyberAgent Capital led this investment round with participation from new investors, namely Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia, Ruvento, MyAsiaVC and Heracles Ventures, Semaai said in a statement on Monday.

Semaai’s existing investors, Peak XV’s Surge, Accion Venture Lab and Beenext, also participated in the round.

After a stellar year of growth, Semaai’s total funding has now reached $7.6 million with this latest round.

Semaai plans to deploy the new funds to expand its agronomy advisory service to agri-retailers and farmers, collaborate with fintech institutions to provide advanced fintech solutions and strengthen its presence in Central Java.

There are more than 8,200 villages in the region, and Semaai plans to cover 75 percent of these villages by the end of 2024.

It is noted that in the last 12 months, the firm’s net revenue has increased by more than fifteen-fold, and its Toko Tani marketplace user base has doubled.

Furthermore, its advisory feature has witnessed an eightfold increase in adoption in the last six months and is used by most of Semaai’s active users.

“With the new funding, our company will collaborate with financial institutions and fintech providers to expand our embedded fintech solutions, having already doubled Semaai’s total transaction volume in the last twelve months,

“This is part of our goal to provide an integrated digital ecosystem that addresses disruptions in the supply chain and fills knowledge gaps for Indonesia’s agri-retailers and smallholder farmers,” said Muhammad Yoga Anindito, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Semaai.

Semaai is a ‘farmer-first’ company building full-stack agri-tech solutions to help farmers and rural micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) such as toko tanis in Indonesia to maximize their earning potential and gain access to better financing, services and new markets.

Through a growing network of service delivery centers, Semaai provides a full suite of agricultural services, such as customized consultancy, productivity tools as well as farming inputs such as seed and fertilizer products.

“Agriculture is the third largest contributor to the overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Indonesia,

“This certainly shows that the sector has massive opportunities, but unfortunately, it has been run traditionally without significant exposure to any digital adoption,” said Kevin Wijaya, CyberAgent Capital, Director of CyberAgent Indonesia Office.

“As a result, productivity gains and development opportunities are left untapped,

“With the founding team’s long experience in the agriculture sector, we are confident that Semaai will revolutionize the Indonesian agricultural sector through its offline-to-online approach, especially within the agricultural input material supply chain,” he added.

CyberAgent Capital is an early-stage CVC firm based in Japan, known for its investments in Tokopedia, KakaoTalk, Tiki.vn, aCommerce, and many others.

According to the statement, Indonesia’s agricultural sector, together with forestry and fisheries, grew 1.46 percent on a yearly basis and 1.61 percent on a quarterly basis.

Cited Badan Pusat Statistik 2023 data, it said the agricultural sector contributed IDR 397,291.202 billion to Indonesia’s GDP or 12.71 percent of the total GDP.

Despite being one of the most significant contributors to the national economy, it said Indonesia’s agricultural sector still faces several challenges, such as limited access to financing, long supply chains, and low technology adoption.

To tackle the challenge, Semaai said the firm provides three essential services widely utilized by farmers and agri-retailers, namely: a business to business (B2B) digital marketplace for agricultural inputs such as seed and fertilizers, and agronomy advisory services to improve their
farming practices, and financial services in partnership with financial institutions and fintech providers.

Semaai also said its agronomy advisory service, which was launched earlier this year, has been adopted by most of its users.

It said the firm gives access to a wide range of educational content, neatly organized by crop type, focused on crop-related pests and diseases.

It also said the content aids users in thoroughly understanding the complexities of crop issues and empowers them to prepare to mitigate and address future problems.

Users are then recommended products from Semaai’s marketplace platform, culminating in hassle-free doorstep delivery. The unique blend of commerce and logistics
incorporated into Semaai’s advisory service is set to bring substantial value and benefits to agri-retailers and farmers utilizing the feature.

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