Healthy food brand Greenly raises seed funding in East Ventures-led round

Indonesian food and beverage retail brand Greenly has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding in a round led by East Ventures, with participation from several angel investors.

The company plans to use the new funds to bankroll product innovation and technology development, as well as its planned expansion to Jakarta and other big cities in Indonesia this year.

Photo credit: Greenly

Founded in 2019, the Surabaya-based startup serves healthy food and drinks made from fresh and natural ingredients. It was founded by Liana Gonta Widjaja, the nutritionist behind Greenly’s recipes, and former PricewaterhouseCoopers consultant Edrick Joe Soetanto, who is currently developing and executing the startup’s business strategy.

Soetanto and Widjaja established the company after realizing a scarcity of affordable and easily accessible healthy food in the country. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, the average Indonesian person consumes only 122 grams of vegetables and 92 grams of fruits every day, lower than the recommended daily intake.

“We seek to address the gap between healthy but expensive food offered by existing players, and affordable but unhealthy food provided by the fast-food chain network,” said Widjaja.

The two founders also wanted to capitalize on the huge opportunity presented by a growing health-conscious middle-class economy in the archipelago.

“Our mission is to bring healthy diet to all levels of society and make it happen in Indonesia as something democratic, not just for a niche market,” Soetanto said.

One of the main components of Greenly’s strategy is integrating the new retail concept with an online-to-offline approach, which the company said sets them apart from other traditional players. It adopted a multichannel sales process by combining both physical outlets and online delivery.

To date, Greenly says it operates in five outlets in Surabaya – one inside a mall with a cafe concept and four cloud kitchens dedicated to its delivery service.