Efishery was supposed to be “reflects what the local ecosystem would do, what the Indonesian founders could do. This was supposed to be one of the best companies from Southeast Asia. This was the winner,” Justin's partner in Golden. Project portal, CNBC said.
Demas Ardian Bloomberg Gety pictures
The Ecological Ecological System in Southeast Asia passed the drought of multi -year financing, and a recent scandal provided another blow to the morale of investors in the region.
The Indonesian -backed Indonesian company – supported by investors such as Softbank Group and Temasek Holdings – was among the best startups in Indonesia, but the initial and continuous investigation indicates that the company may have participated in wrong practices.
The company did not immediately respond to the CNBC request for comment.
Efishery Board of Directors announced on Tuesday that it had appointed a FTI Consulting Consulting Company as the Acting Management of the company, according to the company's official statement obtained by CNBC.
FTI Consulting also issued a statement saying “aimed at supporting the ongoing efforts to conduct a comprehensive and objective review of the real financial and operational position of the company.”
This comes amid a continuous investigation, started by the claim of one of the amount of accounting, which is estimated that the administration has inflated the revenues by about 600 million dollars in the nine months to September 2024, Bloomberg I mentioned.
According to what was reported, the company made a profit of $ 16 million over the same period for investors, but the investigation claims that the startup has already achieved a loss of 35.4 million dollars, according to the report.
“Efishery was supposed to reflect what the local ecosystem could do, what the Indonesian founders could do. This was supposed to be one of the best companies from Southeast Asia. This was supposed to be the winner” in Golden Gate. Ventures, tell CNBC.
the a companyWhich published a smart fishermen's feedback system, reached the case of a single -century in 2023 after a $ 200 million financing round. However, today, it is said that the company's supporters are Consider liquidation or acquisition, among other options, according to Bloomberg.
Underwater environmental system
The Ecological Ecology System in Southeast Asia has already faced years of painful and expensive calibration since the Covid-19 pandemic, when funding increased in the region.
In 2024, the total size of the deal in the region decreased by 10.3 % from the previous year to 633, while the value of the deal is overpowering Deal Street Asia.
“To put this in its correct perspective, only 2024 represents 54.6 % of the capital that was raised during the first year of the Covid-19 in 2020, and only 19.5 % of the peak 2021,” according to the report.
Where did things happen?
For the context, some will consider that the starting scene in the area was relatively small, just began to develop more quickly in the decade and a half of the past decade.
“We are at the beginning of the entire class category, if you will,” said JX Lye, founder and CEO of Acme Technology and Coo from Endowus. “I would like to say that early 2010 was the golden ages in the Silicon Valley … everything was happening – Uber, Airbnb, and Dropbox all occur there.”
“But what happened in mid -2010 was suddenly, southeast Asia became interesting as a growth story,” said Lay.
It was also when the first wave of startups in the region began to appear. Companies like Gojek, Carousell and Grab were among the first to provide strong opportunities for investors to go out, or a way to sell their share for a profit.
You can say that Southeast Asia witnessed what was growing effectively until the collapse in the post -judgment.
Justin Hall
Partner, Golden Gate Ventures
Along with the first wave of successful startups, other factors appeared during this time frame that fastered the growth of the ecosystem of technology and starting in the region, which led to the flow of the investor's attention.
“There was a giant middle -class explosion … in the early first decade of the twentieth century to mid -teenagers,” Kevin Aloui, co -founder of Gojek and Venture at Lightspeed, told CNBC. “There have been a lot of expectations that the consumer market in Southeast Asia would seem to look like a mini -China, but that did not come out.”
Investors were expecting “the vibrant and high energy consumer market for spending”, and therefore, their predictions overwhelmed the power of pricing that companies would obtain, and the frequency of transactions that will happen, and generally, the average revenue that will be emerging companies and Alwi, who is able to bring him.
“There were business models that many believe will be viable, but they were not viable,” he added.
In the end, investors began to realize that some companies in the region may be an exaggeration in their appreciation, and it became clear that the exit opportunities were few and far apart.
“The biggest problem is … there are very few exits in this market, so investors have no way to get their money out,” KnBC told CNBC.
“It is really difficult to do business in Southeast Asia, because there is no such thing. In Southeast Asia, we have seven different languages, seven different governments, seven (different systems).”
“It is not like the practice of business in India or China, as the local market is 1.4 billion people, or 1.2 billion people,” Seerhar added.
From 2011 to 2022, the region witnessed a significant increase in attention and allocating resources, Hall said. Hall told CNBC: “You can say that Southeast Asia has witnessed what is actually unqualified growth until the post -referee collapse,” Hall told CNBC.
“You had money that raised a lot of money very quickly, and you had founders who raised a lot of money very quickly, and unfortunately, the formation of capital outperformed the development of local markets,” Hall said.
Scandal
Today, fraud allegations and misconduct by Efishery wore all over the region.
“Out of our own group, we also would like to recognize the broader effects of the ecosystem for the start of operation in Indonesia and the societies that serve it.”
The statement added, “The recent disclosure of the alleged misconduct (including fraud) within the group was very frustrated to all of us and it was offered confidence in the Indonesian investment climate, where there are the main subsidiaries of our group,” the statement added.
Aquaculture Company was one of the most prominent examples in the form of a good startup in the region.
“There was a lot of hope that was installed on (Efishery) being the next generation … After this (bubble) exploded, because the child posted in this development turned out to be (claiming) fraudulent, I think it is a truly disappointing for the ecological system. .
I think this may have a chilling effect, conservatively, 12 months, but perhaps for a longer period.
Justin Hall
Partner, Golden Gate Ventures
“I think Southeast Asia has certainly achieved its perception … but those that will suffer more than others are growth companies in Indonesia,” Hall said. “I think that every good company in Indonesia will be subject to more scrutiny, to the point that I can see investors who say, it is not worth investing in Indonesia.”
“I think this can have a chilling effect, conservatively, 12 months, but perhaps longer. It is very negative at the present time,” Hall said.
Industry experts also respond that if it is proven that these allegations are correct, this scandal will not only have a negative impact on investing in the region-especially in Indonesia-but also to a large extent at the stages of collecting donations from mid to mid. This would affect not only investors, but the founders as well.
“I don't think it will affect the early stage, because first, the sizes of the checks are small,” said Acme Technology Lye. “But I believe in the middle stages to the subsequent stages, where investors will be tougher … because this is where the largest rounds are.”
“This is the problem, because every financing round becomes more complicated … Now, they want to prove, they want to check, but often you cannot save it. So it will increase the cost of collecting donations. He told me:” This effort will increase. “
He told me: “It is not paid and invisible, right? Because after that, the round of donation can be killed literally.”
Silver
In the end, although this scandal has sent shock waves across the start -up scene in Southeast Asia, industry experts agree on a silver lining: the lessons learned.
“If you are very pessimistic, I say this will reduce the invested dollars. If you are more optimistic, it will not reduce the dollar – it will take longer to those dollars. Hall said:” A lock must be canceled. “
“I think in the long run, this is a good thing. Companies need to check the governance. Investors need to be very diligent with that,” Hall added.
Besides better care and governance, investors agree that seeing more successful exits will be a key to improving drought in financing.
“There must be local exits,” Hall said.
Today, the founders and investors alike realize that their predictions were excessively optimistic and now the market is adapting and returning the calibration to what is realisticly possible.
“This account has long started. Hall said,” The work. “
Ultimately, Southeast Asia “is still the third most populated area in the world. Indonesia is the fourth largest country in the world,” told me. “All these setbacks and challenges will not only make the next wave of business owners, businessmen and investors more intelligent … We will all wear stronger.”
