Smart poultry farming business à la Chickin

As a college student during his time at Brawijaya University in Malang, smashed fried chicken (ayam geprek) was a daily meal for Tubagus Syailendra Wangsadisastra. In 2016, he had just started pursuing International Relations. His business idea emerged when he met Ashab Alkahfi at an entrepreneurship training session. At the time, Ashab was studying at the Faculty of Animal Husbandry.

Tubagus and Ashab observed that chicken—both its meat and eggs—was the primary source of protein nutrition for Indonesians. After all, beef remained too expensive, while fish was relatively harder to distribute. Thus, chicken was the most potential choice.

“We did some research and found that the value chain of the chicken farming industry is enormous. It can reach up to Rp500 trillion a year,” Tubagus said to Fortune Indonesia.

Amid their busy college schedules, the two students studied the poultry business—starting with the egg-laying cycle, hatching, slaughtering period and culling. They were willing to travel back and forth from Malang to Klaten and several other poultry farming areas for their research. One of their early findings was that small-scale poultry farms were often inefficient. Limited access to funding and information frequently led farmers to suffer from losses.

Armed with that experience, they participated in a livestock innovation competition and won a cash prize of Rp3 million. That prize became their initial capital to build a coop and raise 500 chickens in 2017. This was the beginning of Chickin.

Still, a business can’t run smoothly without proper financial backing. The problem was that not many investors were interested in their business potential. By 2019, while other agritech startups had started securing funding, Chickin was still lagging behind.

Unwilling to stay, they both kept refining their plans. Seeing that their poultry farm was still operating, they established PT Sinergi Ketahanan Pangan in 2020. 

“From the start, we always had a plan for the business, even though we were often seen as the underdogs. We really felt how hard it was to raise capital. Back then, I was rejected by investors nearly 100 times during fundraising,” Tubagus explained.

Chickin’s first fundraising

Until September 2021, Chickin won a development grant of Rp100 million from PT Pertamina (Persero). The funds were used to expand their market.

With the rise of fried chicken SMEs in Indonesia, suppliers of processed chicken were overwhelmed. Understandably, some of those with limited capital had already been swept away by the early waves of the pandemic. 

“At first, we tapped into food delivery service users, selling directly to them. And thank God, we were able to capture the market left by those suppliers who had shut down,” Tubagus said.

Then, in July 2022, Chickin received fresh funds—this time from East Ventures. The funds were used to strengthen the digitalization of farm management. Their Internet of Things (IoT) technology, called Chickin Smartfarm, was deployed to make poultry houses more efficient.

“These tools are used to control the climate, temperature, humidity, oxygen, and overall conditions inside the coop. As a result, chicken mortality rates are lower, and feed costs become more efficient.”

Tubagus and Ashab, aged 26 and 25, run a relatively stable business. Chickin’s operations are able to oversee the poultry farming process from upstream to downstream—from production financing, feed and livestock supply, all the way to market access.

Farmers can register as partners through a profit-sharing system. “The farmers provide the coops, and we supply the chicks, feed, and even access to funding. When harvest time comes, we’ll buy their produce back. It’s an end-to-end business.”

Chickin’s business has grown further with the launch of Chickin Fresh, which produces frozen food. This service offers a solution for the supply of processed chicken, prepared through a standardized process and distributed to various targets—from traditional markets to eateries and restaurants. Some of the brands that have partnered with Chickin include Golden Lamian, Hisana Fried Chicken, d’BestO, and Dkriuk.

It’s not without risks

Some of the partner farmers had been selling part of their chicken harvest to other parties, which naturally caused losses for the company. As a result, management had to tighten governance across all partners.

Tubagus realized that agritech businesses are vulnerable to fraud due to the involvement of many people in their management. He doesn’t want his business to collapse because of dishonesty. 

“As an industry that’s heavy on operations, we have to focus on governance. There’s a high potential for things to go wrong due to fraud—not just from customers, farmers, or breeders, but even within our own team,” he said.

He also acknowledged the negative sentiment currently surrounding startups in the agritech sector. According to him, this phenomenon stems from multiple factors. He pointed out that funding for farmers and breeders should be accompanied by guidance and oversight. Without it, the risk is high that business capital will be misused for personal or consumer spending.

Today, Chickin implements a funding model that includes direct supervision at each farming facility—from Day-Old-Chickens (DOC), feed, to medicine and vaccines. Similarly, the supply chain from farm to processing facility and finally to the buyer is continuously monitored.

“We repurchase the farmers’ harvest at a pre-agreed price. This is a proven business model,” said Tubagus.

By running an end-to-end business model, Tubagus claims that his company has been profitable since its inception. He also states that Chickin has never relied on a “money-burning” strategy.

Most recently, Chickin secured a loan of Rp250 billion from DBS. The funds were allocated for partner farmers who lack working capital. Currently, Chickin manages 12.000 poultry coop ecosystems and partners with 60.000 breeders.

Chickin also plans to acquire a fried chicken brand to strengthen its downstream business. Additionally, Chickin hopes to participate in the Free Nutritious Meal (Makan Bergizi Gratis or MBG) program initiated by the Indonesian government.

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The original article was published on Fortune Indonesia, 2 April 2025.