and information at our fingerprints, supporting our dreams, helping us be the most productive versions of ourselves, and getting ready for everything that might come up.
As technology flourishes in every sector, why not leverage its power in a more sustainable manner and implement it in the fishing agriculture industry – introducing eFishery. For the past decade, eFishery has been developing in the aquaculture industry, transforming the industry in developing countries. Leading the company to be the first unicorn in the aquaculture industry, holding a valuation of about $1.4B.
eFishery was founded in Indonesia in 2013 by Gibran Huzaifah and Chrisna Aditya. In the next period of time, the company quickly gained fame across Southeast Asia, offering small-scale farmers the possibility to automate feeding systems across the world. The company’s priority was to provide eFeeders that are affordable, better financing solutions, and access to markets, all in just a few clicks. Their strategy led to investors from all over Europe, Asia as well as the Middle East.
By mid-2024, when the app had its highest popularity, the startup raised a total of $294 million in nine founding rounds, when they achieved their maximum valuation and gained the “unicorn” status.
However, more recently, the company has been confronted with some serious allegations. The allegations were brought by Bloomberg as the media platform portrayed a reasonably clear picture of what the company claimed to have been doing.
Yet, it seems that eFishery has reported revenue for the first nine months of 2024 that has been inflated by 75 percent, meaning $157 million in actual revenue as opposed to the $752 million that has been reported. With a quick math exercise, you can see that there is a $595 discrepancy between what was presented and a $16 million profit into a $35.4 million loss.
Even more so, while the company reported to have distributed over 400,000 active units, the investigation found that only 24,000 units are in operation. And, as a result, one of the company’s early investors explained that these creative book-keeping practices started as early as 2018.
As a response, FTI Consulting said that it “aims to support ongoing efforts to conduct a thorough and objective business review of the company’s true financial and operational position.”.
However, eFishery said in an emailed response “We are fully aware of the gravity of the market speculation and we take this matter with the utmost seriousness,” also adding “We remain dedicated to upholding the highest standards of corporate governance and ethics in all of eFishery’s operations.”.
The company was also alleged that presented a profit of $16 million over the same period to investors, yet the ongoing investigation revealed that the startup actually had a $35.4 million loss.
Justin Hall, the partner at Golden Gate Ventures, reported for CNBC that “[eFishery] was supposed to be reflective of what the local ecosystem could do, what Indonesian founders could do. This was supposed to be one of the better companies from Southeast Asia. This was supposed to be a winner,”.
Even though the company met unicorn status in 2023, today, backers of the company are reporting that the company might also be considering liquidation or even buyout among other options, reported Bloomberg.
