Indonesian e-grocery startup Sayurbox raises US$120+M Series C funding from led by Alpha JWC and Northstar

Sayurbox, an Indonesia-based business to consumer (B2C) and business to business (B2B) e-grocery startup, announced Monday its oversubscribed Series C round of $120+ million led by Northstar and Alpha JWC Ventures, with participation from new investor International Finance Corporation (IFC).

Existing investors Astra, Syngenta Group Ventures, and Global Brain as well as other prominent angel investors also participated in this fundraising round, Sayurbox said in a statement.

The new funds will be used to accelerate e-Grocery penetration in new and existing cities and extend Sayurbox’s end-to-end supply chain nationwide.

Founded in 2017, Sayurbox is building Indonesia’s fastest growing e-grocery platform with full integration from farm to end consumer. Its platform offers more than 5,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs), ranging from fresh produce, meat and poultry, snacks, and ready-to-eat dishes. Sayurbox currently serves around 1 million customers in Java and Bali and works with more than 10,000 farmers nationwide.

“Sayurbox was founded with the social mission of providing market access to local farmers through the digitalization of Indonesia’s agri-supply chain. 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,

“This translates into better customer satisfaction, loyalty and repeats, while reducing wastage and lowering fulfillment costs. We are extremely grateful and excited to be partnering with strong value-add investors Northstar and Alpha JWC Ventures who believe in our vision,” said Sayurbox co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Amanda Susanti.

Sayurbox’s new funding comes less than a year after the company raised US$15 million in Series B funding led by Astra. Since then, Sayurbox has experienced exponential growth through increasing its range of products, expanding from the Greater Jakarta area to Surabaya (East Java) and Bali, as well as building a network of micro-fulfilment hubs to service Sayurbox’s quick commerce service, SayurKilat.

“We are big believers in empowering small businesses and entrepreneurs through technology. Having known Amanda and 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 Sayurbox’s e-grocery platform. e-grocery is the next frontier for e-commerce, and we are excited about working closely with Amanda and her team to grow the Sayurbox platform throughout Indonesia,” said Patrick Walujo, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Northstar.

The Northstar Group was founded in 2003 by Patrick Walujo and Glenn Sugita. Since then it has raised five private equity funds with over $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 firm 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.

“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. 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!” said Eko Kurniadi, Partner at 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, it 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 $650 million asset under management – the largest early-stage fund in Southeast Asia – and 57 active portfolio companies across Southeast Asia.

“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 small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). That’s why digitalization is a key pillar of our strategy and a true game changer now and in post-Covid-19 business environments,” said Azam Khan, IFC Country Manager for Indonesia and Timor-Leste.

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. It works in more than 100 countries, using its capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities in developing countries. In fiscal year 2021, it 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.

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