GREENS, an integrated food technology startup, secured pre-seed funding led by East Ventures

GREENS, an integrated food technology startup in transforming Indonesia’s food system, announced that it has secured an undisclosed amount of pre-seed funding led by East Ventures, with participation from other investors. 

“We are glad to receive the investment from East Ventures. We believe it will serve as a strong testament of GREENS’ solution and mission. GREENS provides an integrated food technology to bring a new food ecosystem that will better improve the way people grow and get their food. Meal is the daily essential that everyone needs, and we are certain our solutions can improve and bring a better life through the closest needs of the society,” said Andi Sie, Chief Executive Officer of GREENS.

Indonesia loses up to 48 million metric tonnes of food annually, for the most part due to inefficient processing, storage, transportation, and selling of food crops. As a country with abundant agricultural resources, Indonesia has a very high risk of soil erosion. There is a threat to food security as the lack of organic content in the soil harms yields, leading to further malnutrition and even food scarcity. 

In addition, based on quality and safety scores of the food control system, Indonesia was ranked 7 out of 9 ASEAN countries in 2020. These are persisting and correlating issues surrounding the country’s broken food system which calls the GREENS founders to advance food system transformation in Indonesia.

GREENS’ solution is a new, hyperlocal, food ecosystem where people can consume high nutrient meals that are grown and harvested onsite using 90% less water, 70% less land, and zero distance from farm to meal. GREENS is creating its technology platform on a blockchain network for parallel deployment in this world and the metaverse, and it has successfully built its first portable CEA (Controlled Environment Agriculture) technology on blockchain with multiple growing algorithms.

“The GREENS platform consists of a fully automated garden unit, named GREENS pod, that is modular, portable and plug-and-play. It is fully integrated for the production of high nutrient foods from seed to a complete salad meal and beyond, which can be accessed from wherever you are,” said Geraldi Tjoa, Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer of GREENS.

The GREENS team is led by several serial executives which consists of Andi Sie, Chief Executive Officer, Geraldi Tjoa, Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer, and Erwin Gunawan, Co-Founder & Chief Business Officer. Andi and Erwin are Bachelor of Science graduates from The Ohio State University. Andi is a startup transformer with over 15 years of building tech startups both in the USA and Indonesia with multiple exits. Erwin has over 15 years of experience in supply chain, F&B and distribution and is blockchain certified. Geraldi’s expertise is deeply rooted in food production and automation with a robotics background as a Bachelor of Computer Science graduate from Pelita Harapan University. 

GREENS will allocate the new funding to build the ecosystem for food decentralization in 2 phases. Phase 1 will focus on enabling a hyperlocal food ecosystem by creating cloud networks of connected hyperlocal food outlets with the GREENS platform, while Phase 2 will focus on Meta Farming, which will enable everyone to grow food in the metaverse for self-consumption and/or sale. GREENS aim to bring food equity for all through meta farming.

Currently, GREENS’ solution has contributed to several numbers of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations; with several highlights including: Goal No 1 & 2 by supporting everyone to grow their own food through the platform, No 3 by providing essential micronutrients, No 6 by using 90% less water and no harmful chemical for farming, and etc. 

Melisa Irene, Partner at East Ventures, said, “GREENS help cut food distribution inefficiencies by shortening the distance between where foods are planted and harvested, making it possible to grow your own food at your own place. We are happy to welcome GREENS as part of East Ventures’ portfolios and fully support GREENS’ mission to localize food production to enhance resilience and the sustainability of food systems in Indonesia.” 

In the upcoming October 2022, GREENS is going to open its first hyperlocal outlet that will be located in Plaza Indonesia, Jakarta.