TMI Ventures leads $13.5m round for Indonesia's EdenFarm

AppWorks, AC Ventures and Capria Ventures also participated. The investment, billed as a pre-Series B, brings total funding since the company’s inception in 2017 to USD 34.5m.

AppWorks and AC led a USD 19m Series A in 2021, supported by Trihill Capital, OCBC Ventures, Investible, Corin Capital, and Global Founders Capital. Earlier investors also include Y Combinator.

EdenFarm is a B2B food service platform that provides fresh produce from farmers to restaurants, caterers, street vendors, and start-up partners.

The company claims to reduce middleman inefficiencies by offering cheaper prices, better margins, and consistent quality by collecting, selecting, and re-distributing produce. There are three fulfilment centres and 10 collection facilities across Java. Trucking is outsourced.

“EdenFarm has seen almost 60x growth in the last 40 months and has laid the foundation to remain profitable on its path, leading amongst other players which are suffering big losses,” David Gunawan, co-founder and CEO of EdenFarm, said in a statement.

Gunawan’s co-founders, CFO Ramavito Mountaino and COO Febrianto Gamal, briefly worked as farmers. This is said to have informed their work with stakeholders across the value chain. There have been various outreach initiatives in partnership with local government to connect with farmers, including millennial farmers.

The plan is to grow the business by up to 4x over the next year by expanding the network across the country, improving customer experience and scaling technology. Recent traction on this front includes a collaboration with LinkAja, a Telkomsel-backed e-wallet start-up exploring digital payments in the food supply chain.

EdenFarm has also been framed as a responsible investment and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) play. Adrian Li, founder of AC, noted that the company matched his firm’s ESG philosophy, operating at “nearly 0% food waste and delivering a robust and meaningful impact to the livelihoods of Indonesia’s farmers.”

For Capria, a US-based emerging markets, impact and ESG investor, EdenFarm marks a growing interest in Southeast Asia. The firm's first deal in the region came last October with support for a USD 10m round for sharia-compliant financial technology provider Alami alongside AC.

“EdenFarm has risen through the pandemic to become the leader with strong unit economics in Indonesia facilitating B2B agriculture products from farmer procurement through to supplying small businesses while only yet starting to scratch the surface of the massive opportunity”, said Dave Richards, a co-founder and managing partner at Capria, added.

“EdenFarm stands out as a frontrunner in creating more opportunities for small farmers to improve their crop selection and growing techniques in order to deliver a higher volume and quality of harvest output and access to buyers. This results in increased earnings and sustainability for farmers and SME [small to medium-sized enterprise] buyers – it’s a win-win-win.”

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Support services
• Consumer
• Industrials
• Early-stage
• Indonesia
• AppWorks Ventures
• AC Ventures
• Food
• Logistics
• Agriculture
• Impact investment
• ESG