22/1/2018 – Unitus Impact’s social venture capital arm Patamar Capital has committed its first direct investment from its new women’s fund, leading a round in Indonesia’s farm-to-table fresh produce distribution platform SayurBox.
The round was also participated by other investors including Insignia Ventures Partners and several angel investors.
For Patamar Capital, their investment was made through its women SME-focused impact investment fund which was launched last year in collaboration with the Australian government.
“We believe there is a huge opportunity in the fresh produce e-commerce space and SayurBox has proven that they can execute well and achieve impressive early traction,” explained Dondi Hananto, a Partner at Patamar Capital.
“From a gender lens perspective,” he added. “Sayurbox is able to empower farmer partners, farmer communities, and local producers to get better access to the market, and a lot of those involved in the farmer communities are women.”
Founded in May 2017, SayurBox allows users to order organic and hydroponic vegetables from farm-to-table via a click on their website. The startup provides five deliveries weekly and is focused on fair-trade pricing and waste eliminating.
According to an announcement on their website, SayurBox is also set to open its first offline store in Plaza Indonesia, with a soft opening on January 22.
Having made its first investment, Patamar Capital’s Investing in Women Fund would continue to focus on early-stage investments in Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.
It plans to make another 6 to 8 direct investments of between US$200K to US$300K in women-led businesses at the seed or pre-Series A stage by July 2019.
On the other hand, the women-focused fund has also run an impact accelerator program where four of the 12 participating companies are chosen by peers to receive US$25,000 in funding.
These four Indonesian firms include cassava products manufacturer Ladang Lima, direct trading for farmers produce platform Panen ID, healthy snack maker Hello Sunshine, and specialty beverage maker Rahsa Nusantara.
The first batch of the accelerator was organized in October 2017 and the second batch is scheduled to be held in the second quarter of this year.
