
ARIA
A tech-enabled Drone Automation and IOT Mechanization Consulting & Solution Company.
Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
---|---|---|---|
investor investor investor investor | €0.0 | round | |
* | $5.0m | Seed | |
Total Funding | 000k |
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PT Aria Agri Indonesia, operating as ARIA, is an agritech company established in October 2021 to address key challenges in Indonesia's agriculture sector. The company was founded by William Sjaichudin (CEO), Arden Lim (CPO), and Yosa Rosario (COO), who identified a decline in the farming workforce as a primary obstacle, leading to issues with manual activities like spraying and harvesting. The founders bring diverse and relevant experience to the firm. William Sjaichudin previously served as COO for a major trading company and a large tapioca manufacturer. Yosa Rosario, an electrical engineering graduate, has specialized in drone technology since 2014, including developing drones for Indonesia's Ministry of Defense. Arden Lim's background includes serving as COO for an industrial automation firm that provides IoT and packaging solutions to multinational corporations. Two of the co-founders, Sjaichudin and Lim, also previously established a legal tech startup in 2020.
ARIA offers technology-driven solutions to enhance efficiency and productivity for both smallholder farmers and large-scale plantations. The business primarily targets the B2B segment, serving clients in the plantation and forestry industries, including prominent companies like Triputra Group, Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) Sinar Mas, and Bayer. Its business model operates on a service basis, providing drone services per hectare to make the technology more accessible and affordable than direct purchase. The core of ARIA's offering involves the use of drones and Internet of Things (IoT) devices for various agricultural applications. Services include area mapping, autonomous drone spraying for fertilizers and pesticides, and data analysis to inform precision agriculture. The company has also developed specific IoT assets like worker trackers to monitor field activity and a 'Turbo Spreader' for mechanized fertilizing. To complement its hardware, ARIA provides a data platform for business intelligence and a digital agronomist service that uses GIS and machine learning to recommend fertilizer usage. In a move to serve individual farmers, the company launched the ARIA Tani mobile application, which functions as a one-stop-shop for ordering drone services and purchasing farming supplies like fertilizers and chemicals.
The company's journey began with a pre-seed funding round in March 2022, led by GK-Plug and Play Indonesia and East Ventures. This was followed by a significant milestone in August 2022, when ARIA secured US$5 million in a seed funding round led by East Ventures, with participation from Triputra Group, Michael Sampoerna, and others. This capital was earmarked for expanding its drone fleet, developing its IoT technologies, and establishing a network of 17 service branches across Indonesia to better serve the nation's vast agricultural lands.
Keywords: agritech, precision agriculture, drone services, IoT in agriculture, farm management, crop spraying, agricultural data analytics, forestry technology, plantation management, Indonesian agriculture, Aria Tani, William Sjaichudin, Arden Lim, Yosa Rosario, East Ventures, smart farming, agricultural technology, crop monitoring, digital agronomy, sustainable agriculture