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Agritech start-up TaniGroup secures US$10 million Series A funding
Singapore-based Openspace Ventures led the round with participation from Intudo Ventures, Golden Gate Ventures and The DFS Lab, a fintech accelerator funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
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TaniGroup VP of corporate services Astri Purnamasari (in blue T-shirt) and a farmer harvest tomatoes in Leuwiliang district, Bogor, West Java, May 7. (Courtesy of /TaniGroup)
T
aniGroup, a homegrown agriculture technology (agritech) start-up, announced on Monday that investors have injected US$10 million into the company, which will use the funds to expand business operations.
Singapore-based Openspace Ventures led the round with participation from Intudo Ventures, Golden Gate Ventures and The DFS Lab, a fintech accelerator funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
TaniGroup operates two business arms, e-marketplace TaniHub and peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform TaniFund.
The e-marketplace allows consumers to buy fresh produce directly from farmers, while the P2P platform provides farmers with an alternative and legally-registered source of loans.
“We will also be rolling out several other supporting platforms that will further improve agricultural decision making,” said TaniGroup cofounder Pamitra Wineka in a statement.
Established in mid-2016, TaniHub has partnered with over 25,000 farmers across the country and operates five distribution hubs around Java. The company also serves over 400 small and medium enterprises and 10,000 individual customers.
Pamitra said his company had much room to grow as Indonesia’s agricultural sector had barely been touched by technology even though it contributed US$90.76 billion to GDP last year, the second highest contribution after manufacturing at US$152.29 billion.
Shane Chesson, a partner at Openspace, concurred with Pamitra, saying that his venture capital firm chose to invest in TaniGroup because it operated in a sector “barely touched by digitization”.
TaniGroup last secured funding from Jakarta-based Alpha JWC Ventures in April last year. The value of this pre-Series A fund remains undisclosed. (bbn)
