Can troubled TaniHub reverse course?

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Agritech startups don’t get the attention that they deserve, especially compared to ecommerce or fintech businesses.

TaniHub was one of the first agritech startups that I covered for Tech in Asia. The company aims to cut out the many brokers standing between smallholder farmers and consumers’ dining tables in Indonesia.

With almost US$100 million in disclosed funding, TaniHub has become one of the top-funded agritech startups in the region. As a young startup, it had also received a rare mention from President Joko Widodo, whose acknowledgement of the firm gave it some degree of name recognition.

It’s clear how TaniHub has gotten this far: The company’s goals are an important one for Indonesia, considering the pivotal role of the country’s agriculture industry as well as the broken supply chain that often leaves farmers impoverished.

But the company has also run into troubles of late, as my colleague Ardi examines in this week’s Big Story. TaniFund, its lending arm, has struggled to pay back lenders as the number of its non-performing loans rises. There has also been a larger upheaval in Indonesia’s e-grocery space – TaniHub had closed down its B2C service in favor of B2B earlier this year.

This brings us to my analysis on Indonesia’s broader e-grocery space in this week’s Hot Take. As consumers flock back to offline stores, e-grocery players must find a reason to keep users coming back to their apps.

But with rising inflation motivating people to cut unnecessary expenses (like delivery fees), that appears to be easier said than done.

– Putra

THE BIG STORY

TaniHub’s future precarious amid C-suite exits, fresh allegations

Image credit: Timmy Loen

The company has seen all of its C-level executives depart, as well as a host of leaders that had been helming its troubled P2P business unit, TaniFund.

THE HOT TAKE

HappyFresh is safe, but expect more headwinds for Indonesia’s e-grocery space

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