Wednesday, July 31, 2024

eFishery In Deep Water

Homegrown aquaculture unicorn eFishery has laid off an undisclosed portion of its workforce and announced a shift in focus as a possible result of a lack of domestic demand for fisheries products. Nailul Huda, director for digital economy at the Centre of Economic and Law Studies said that the company might have found that the local market lacked sufficient appetite for its products. The firm was also facing tight funding.

The company did not disclose the number of people impacted by the layoffs, claiming that it was still in the process of calculating the figure. It vowed to assist the laid off employees, including by helping them find new jobs.

Local Demand - It seems the local market is not absorbing as much as the company expected. Company will not sell domestically but to countries like China, Thailand and others, as they also need food sub-bases from Indonesia.

The firm said the move was part of a shift in strategy that also included plans to pursue growth through overseas markets. The unicorn pledged to focus on developing both upstream and downstream parts of its business this year, including product penetration and digitalization.

Operation In India - In October 2023, eFishery established a new office in Kakinanda, India, a city that accounts for some 85% of the country’s fish production. eFishery might shift focus to foreign markets, partly because of the lack of local players in Indonesia. The fishery market is large and unorganized in Indonesia.

In May of last year, eFishery officially earned the title of unicorn, a term for start-ups with a valuation of US$1bil or more. It was the first start-up in the global aquaculture industry to cross that threshold. At the time, it had valuation of some US$1.3bil. It raised another US$200mil in a Series D funding round the following July.

After the funding round, eFishery said it aimed to target over one million aquaculture ponds in Indonesia by 2025 and to export fully traceable antibiotic-free shrimp products overseas.

Founded in 2013, eFishery seeks to provide a marketplace for fish and shrimp feed and financing for producers. The company also serves as a platform for business-to-business sales of fresh fish and shrimp products.

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