Jakarta, March 21, 2022 – Farmers across Indonesia stand to benefit from higher income and better access to a market already worth $120 billion a year following a successful round of fundraising for Sayurbox, the nation's leading B2C e-Grocery platform.
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, invested $10 million in Sayurbox as part of a $120 million fundraising that includes injections led by Alpha JWC Ventures and Northstar. The funds will enable Sayurbox to scale up its digital platform and dramatically boost direct farm-to-plate access nationwide.
Indonesia is home to the fastest growing grocery market in Southeast Asia with groceries one of the nation's largest consumer segments. But the agriculture sector, while a key component of the economy and employing some 33 million farmers, faces significant issues from logistical barriers to multiple middlemen along agricultural value chains, all of which erodes income for producers. Sourcing directly from farmers enables Sayurbox to disrupt the traditional supply chain by cutting out middlemen, in turn providing farmers with consistent demand planning, ordering, as well as better and more stable prices.
"Sayurbox was founded with the social mission of providing market access to local farmers through the digitalization of Indonesia's agri-supply chain," said Sayurbox co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Amanda Susanti. "Our proprietary demand forecasting, inventory planning and route optimization algorithms enable us to have full visibility of our entire agri-supply chain, delivering the best customer experience in terms of better freshness, pricing, on-time delivery, and product range. We are extremely grateful and excited to be partnering with strong value-add investors Northstar and Alpha JWC Ventures, as well as IFC, who all believe in our vision."
Sayurbox currently serves one million customers on the islands of Java and Bali. While the platform now works with more than 10,000 farmers, it's seeking to boost that to 40,000 by 2024. Its platform offers more than 5,000 products, from fresh produce, meat and poultry to snacks and ready-to-eat dishes.
"Scaling up digital platforms such as Sayurbox can make a huge contribution towards unlocking access to markets and finance and lifting prosperity for millions of farmers through increased velocity of money and a higher penetration rate of SMEs," said Azam Khan, IFC Country Manager for Indonesia and Timor-Leste. "Digitalization is a key pillar of our strategy - a game changer in post-Covid-19 business environments."
In addition to its financial commitment, IFC will provide knowledge, innovation and capacity building and assist Sayurbox in introducing financial products to farmers that can help them grow their business. IFC will also leverage its own expertise in cold chain infrastructure, data management and technology to support a climate-smart approach that can help sustain the company's next stage of growth.
"Growing in this vertical is difficult as there are huge execution risks especially given the fragmented logistics and different consumer behavior in cities across Indonesia. However, Sayurbox has figured out the playbook to tackle these challenges by building a proprietary supply chain comparable to global e-Grocery leaders," said Eko Kurniadi, Partner at Alpha JWC Ventures. "This best-in-class operation allows Sayurbox to deliver high quality produce from harvest to doorstep within 12 hours ensuring peak freshness. With this raise, they are now ready to expand even further. We are looking forward to working together with Amanda and her team."
The investment will help Sayurbox leverage digital technology to improve supply-chain efficiencies and is expected to have a positive impact on harvest loss in Indonesia which is estimated at almost 50 percent.
"We are big believers in empowering small businesses and entrepreneurs through technology. Having tracked Sayurbox's growth since 2017, we can tell the Sayurbox team is truly passionate about making a social impact on Indonesia's small holders and individual farmers through its e-Grocery platform," said Patrick Walujo, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Northstar. "The e-Grocery sector is the next frontier for e-Commerce, and we are excited about working closely with the Sayurbox team to grow the platform throughout Indonesia."
About IFC
IFC—a member of the World Bank Group—is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. We work in more than 100 countries, using our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities in developing countries. In fiscal year 2021, IFC committed a record $31.5 billion to private companies and financial institutions in developing countries, leveraging the power of the private sector to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity as economies grapple with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. For more information, visit www.ifc.org.
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About Sayurbox
Sayurbox's vision is to make fresh produce accessible and affordable to end consumers. Sayurbox introduced custom-packaged fruits and vegetables to the market in 2017. Sayurbox offers many choices of delivery times to reduce waste and improve freshness with diverse payment methods. Today, Sayurbox is an e-commerce grocery servicing the Greater Jakarta, Surabaya, and Bali areas with the addition of meats, dairies, cereals, seasonings, meals, organic food, and locally grown items from farmers and producers. Visit www.sayurbox.com
About Northstar
The Northstar Group was founded in 2003 by Patrick Walujo and Glenn Sugita. Since then the Northstar Group has raised five private equity funds with over US$2.5 billion in aggregate equity commitments and has invested in more than 40 companies across the banking, insurance, consumer/retail, manufacturing, technology, telecom, and agribusiness sectors. The Northstar Group has more than 25 professionals based in Singapore and Jakarta, bringing together significant international experience, deep local market insight, and sensitivity to local conventions and conditions. For more information, visit www.nsgroup.com
About Alpha JWC Ventures
Alpha JWC Ventures is an early to growth-stage Southeast Asian venture capital firm. Its debut fund was launched in 2016 as Indonesia's first independent and institutional early-stage venture capital fund. Over the years, Alpha JWC has established a strong reputation and clear positioning in the market as the leading venture capital firm with one of the region's largest on-the-ground teams and a global network. The firm currently manages around USD 650 mn AUM – the largest early-stage fund in Southeast Asia – and 57 active portfolio companies across Southeast Asia. For more information, visit www.alphajwc.com
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