Gibran Huzaifah, CEO of eFishery
Jakarta, IO – Meet Gibran Huzaifah, a brilliant young Indonesian businessman. The founder and CEO of “eFishery,” an internet-based aquaculture company.
Gibran struggled valiantly when starting his business years ago. For Gibran, who grew up in Pulogadung, Jakarta, and went to school in Bekasi, studying at ITB, Bandung, was his toughest time, living alone without any pocket money or family. He once didn’t have a place to sleep and had to wander around to rest and sleep on campus or at the mosque.
Gibran once went three days without eating, as he ran out of money. His father, a construction foreman, had recently lost his job when his son enrolled at ITB.
Gibran, who previously studied biology, participated in an aquaculture class and was captivated by the professor’s presentation on catfish rearing. He quickly hired a pond to breed catfish, believing that aquaculture was the future of food and maybe a way out of poverty. He successfully ran 76 fish pools by 2012.
Gibran encountered numerous challenges in this industry, including relatively low profit margins due to high feed costs, and middlemen buying breeder fish at low prices, which forced him to construct an automatic feeder prototype utilizing “Internet of Things” technology with the help of a friend with technological expertise, to solve the problem of over- or under-feeding fish.
He then created eFishery, in 2013. The company has expanded to include markets for fish and shrimp growers and purchasers. eFishery also collaborates with financial institutions to finance farmers.
Gibran and his co-founders’ shares were worth more than $100 million in the most recent investment round. Gibran said that his life had not changed much. “It feels good because I don’t have to worry about the financial problems I had growing up,” he added.
eFishery’s integrated ecosystem, which includes a fish and shrimp food marketplace, a B2B sales platform for fresh fish and shrimp products, and financial access for fish farmers, has helped over 70,000 fish and shrimp farmers in more than 280 cities and districts across Indonesia.
The “Internet of Things” technology served as the foundation for eFishery back in 2013, when it was first founded. Gibran’s perseverance attracted the attention of huge investor Patrick Walujo, who is now reported to be GoTo’s CEO.
Patrick said that he had first met Gibran Huzaifah, the founder of e-Fishery, when he had just graduated from ITB when Gibran described the concept of creating a device with sensors to feed fish based on their movements. The initial idea was so simple that Patrick thought the device would not work. Amazed by Gibran’s idea, he soon came around and was eventually convinced to fund e-Fishery.
“I was so amazed by his idea and his incredible spirit and resilience that I funded his business to keep myself informed with innovations like this,” Patrick stated to CNBC.
“The company grew quickly during its journey. Most importantly for the benefit of fish growers,” said Patrick. e-Fishery has expanded its business to include not only offering equipment to fish farmers as the app’s subscribers but also providing working finance and purchasing fish to sell to restaurants.
Patrick claimed that the e-Fishery is an original Indonesian company, as similar enterprises in other countries have failed to click. “Last month’s turnover reached IDR 4 trillion after 12 months. This is a highly profitable business, more profitable than GoJek,” stated Patrick Walujo, as quoted on the Unpar Official YouTube channel.
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Gibran’s business significantly grew when e-fishery received an investment of IDR 1.5 trillion in 2022. Gibran’s accomplishments earned him a spot on the Forbes 40 Under 40 list as an influential Indonesian.
“I used to joke to my buddy that if I was ever going to be on Forbes, I wouldn’t pose wearing a suit and tie, but I would bring a fish,” he wrote on his social media account. “What do you know? I did manage to be on Forbes, so I did the pose in a market wearing a suit with a fish as the tie,” wrote Gibran, as quoted in the New York Times on Monday, October 16. (rp)