Banyu Raises US$1.25 Million Seed to Upscale Indonesia’s Seaweed Industry for Global Markets

Banyu, a technology-enabled, integrated seaweed company, today announced the completion of US$1.25 million seed round of financing led by Intudo. 

Founded in December 2023, Banyu is a technology-enabled, integrated seaweed company revolutionizing and rejuvenating Indonesia’s seaweed industry, supporting local farmers through high quality seedlings, advanced farming techniques, and access to stable income. Banyu aspires to transform the seaweed value chain by eliminating market fragmentation, creating an efficient and transparent system, providing high-quality inputs, teaching advanced farming practices, and introducing technology to empower smallholder farmers.

Indonesia is the world’s largest producer of tropical seaweeds and an essential part of the global seaweed supply chain. However, as Indonesia’s seaweed industry is primarily comprised of smallholder farmers—with over one million individuals making a living from seaweed cultivation—the country’s seaweed industry faces a number of issues, including: (1) Low-quality inputs that impact overall product quality and efficiency; (2) Labor and cost-intensive farming practices; (3) Lack of price transparency and inconsistent demand; (4) Poor access to financing; and (5) Non-existent adoption of data or technology. Banyu seeks to address these issues through its comprehensive offerings, upscaling Indonesia’s seaweed industry through technology, sustainable modern farming practices, and targeted support for farmers and local communities.

Banyu works closely with farmers, traders, and downstream processors to establish stronger market dynamics and greater quality assurance, helping upscale Indonesia’s seaweeds and seaweed-related products and extracts in the global market. Banyu’s approach effectively enhances the livelihoods of local communities while promoting sustainable, responsible, and efficient farming practices. Through the company’s proprietary seedling production methods, Banyu’s spore seedlings have demonstrated the ability to consistently increase yields by up to 20% when compared to the current widespread method of using derivative seedlings from previous harvests.

Banyu sells seaweed on a global scale, working with major international FMCG companies and ingredients companies for food production as well as providing inputs for emerging use cases such as biofertilizers, bioplastics, animal feed, and other bioproducts. Banyu works closely with buyers to define upfront the desired seaweed species, quantity, as well as environmental and social standards required for the purchase. This approach allows buyers to start with a small demo plot managed by a few farmers to demonstrate adherence to these standards. Banyu can then quickly ramp up production by onboarding additional farmers to fulfill greater order quantities. All the while, Banyu will continually source and manage groups of seaweed farmers, providing training and knowledge transfers, helping improve farm management capabilities, and implementing technology to aid them in cultivating food- and pharma-grade seaweed for international markets.

Banyu is led by Dodon Yamin (Chief Executive Officer), Anis Nur Aini (Chief Sustainability Officer), and Anthony Kwik (President Commissioner), bringing together experience in seaweed farming, microfinance, and sustainability. Building off life experience, the team recognized the inefficiencies of seaweed cultivation, understanding the importance of the crop for the livelihoods of coastal communities and the essential role of seaweed in healing and maintaining marine ecosystems. Paired with the significant increase in global demand for sustainable bio-based products, Banyu was born to take Indonesia’s seaweed industry to the next level, infusing a legacy farming industry with cutting-edge regenerative principles.

“With Banyu’s groundbreaking seedling cultivation and innovative farming methodologies, we are reimagining Indonesia’s seaweed industry to be more competitive, transparent, and sustainable. As the first startup to focus on seedling cultivation with the aim of becoming the largest producer in the region, we are combining cutting-edge technology with deep local knowledge and expertise. This empowers smallholder farmers to achieve higher yields, access global markets, and adopt regenerative practices that benefit both the environment and their communities. This funding enables us to accelerate our vision of transforming seaweed into a high-value, sustainable resource for industries worldwide,” said Dodon Yamin, Co-founder and CEO, Banyu.

With this round of financing, Banyu will establish a seedling cultivation laboratory and nursery and grow its farming and exporting operations. The company will expand its proprietary method for production of high-quality seedlings, becoming the largest high-volume producer of seedlings in Indonesia. Banyu will aggressively target Sulawesi, Indonesia’s seaweed production capital, eventually expanding to other major seaweed producing areas such as Nusa Tenggara ,Lampung, Maluku and Papua.

“With its status as the world’s largest producer of tropical seaweed, Indonesia is a critical source for seaweed around the world. Banyu is helping Indonesia climb the seaweed value chain to achieve greater productivity and sustainability. By focusing on an area where Indonesia excels globally, Banyu can expand its addressable market worldwide, creating economies of scale beyond just Indonesia while creating substantial impact domestically among coastal communities that benefit from Banyu’s services and expertise,” said Patrick Yip, Founding Partner, Intudo.