Openspace co-leads $17m round for Indonesia's TaniHub

Golden Gate Ventures, another existing investor, is also re-upping in the round. New backers include UOB Venture Management, Vertex Ventures, BRI Ventures, and Tenaya Capital. Previously, the start-up had raised $10 million in a Series A round last year.

Seeking to help farmers get better transparency on prices and improved sales channels, TaniHub connects more than 30,000 farmers with enterprise and retail customers. Founded in 2016, it now has five regional offices situated across Indonesia’s two major islands and also offers financing through TaniFund, a peer-to-peer lending platform. The financing platform is primarily geared towards helping low-income farmers get affordable loans to support their farming and trading activities. 

The fresh capital will be used for operational improvements, including implementing automation solutions in the company’s new processing and packing center. TaniHub plans to roll out three new hubs and distribution centers with the goal of ensuring products ordered on the platform can be delivered across the country by 2022. 

“In a time of volatility and relative capital scarcity, this round gives the company the firepower to keep building its technology to deliver on better logistics and larger capacity. Food security, safe supply and empowering farmers and customers alike is crucial at this time and these goals are consistent with TaniHub’s long term vision,” said Shane Chesson, a partner at Openspace. 

TaniHub claims farmers using the platform or the financing platform have seen their incomes increase. It says sales have tripled over the last eight months.

Other fresh produce-themed e-commerce players in Indonesia include Sayurbox, which delivers from three locations primarily in Java, and Ergano, seed funded by East Ventures in 2016. Earlier in the year, the three start-ups joined Grab Ventures Velocity, an early-stage accelerator program for local companies co-managed by BRI Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Bank Rakyat Indonesia.   

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Consumer
• Early-stage
• Indonesia
• Agritech
• TMT
• Openspace Ventures
• Intudo
• Agriculture