DELOS was founded by Guntur Mallarangeng, Aris Noerhadi, Alex Farthing and Bobby Indra to bring a science-based approach to improve productivity in shrimp farming. Its key product - AquaHero - is effectively a shrimp farm operating system consisting of software, a data model and standard operating procedures. The software platform takes in a variety of data from a shrimp farm gathered through well-defined protocols, including water quality, feed, viral load in the cohort, etc. A proprietary cloud-based data model, with more than 40 different input factors, leads to a set of daily actions and interventions for farm operators.
Early deployments showed vastly improved production with significantly less feed expended, i.e. higher revenue at lower cost. With the Series A investment, the DELOS team will further expand its business to more farms across Indonesia, while deepening research behind the science and the data model, and further building out the software platform.
The commercial potential is large. Indonesia is one of the top five shrimp producers in the world. Other key producers are clustered around the Indian Ocean and South China Sea, including Thailand, Vietnam, India and China. Output from Indonesia at current levels is between $2-3b annually at about 50% productivity. AquaHero can potentially lift the output significantly.
More critically, the opportunity to bring about environmental and social impact is significant. DELOS ensures that sea water used in farming is sanitized before being released back to the ocean, preventing pollution and spread of diseases along the coastline. The higher productivity from each hectare also reduces the need to clear more land, thus protecting the fragile coastal mangrove ecosystem. The company also provides for upskilling and job opportunities in rural communities around the farms.
We are pleased to support the team in a uniquely Southeast Asian venture. If successful, DELOS can fundamentally change how shrimp farms are operated not just in Indonesia but also regionally, and potentially globally, leading to a more sustainable and responsible way of meeting the rising demand for shrimp around the world.
