Agritech business Estet Sepakat Sdn. Berhad launches equity crowdfunding campaign on Ethis Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Agriculture Technology-as-a-Service (ATaaS) provider Estet Sepakat Sdn. Berhad (ES) has launched its equity crowdfunding campaign (ECF) via Ethis Malaysia, the first fully-shariah compliant equity crowdfunding platform operating as a Recognized Market Operator (RMO) that is approved by the Securities Commission of Malaysia.

This is ES’ maiden investing campaign on an equity crowdfunding platform, and it is raising up to a maximum of RM6,000,000, offering investors up to 30% stake in its company.

As part of its exit strategy, the company states that it will target to purchase the shares from investors at the end of year 2 on a first come first serve basis, giving investors a projected 16% yearly capital gain. Collectively and ideally, both the capital gain and the dividend will make up a projected annual ROI of 24% for investors. It intends to explore the possibility of an IPO in its fifth year, and is offering an Investment Protection Plan to safeguard its investors.

Founder and Principal Advisor of ES, Badardin Ahmad said, “Investing in Estet Sepakat through this equity crowdfunding campaign gives investors an opportunity to invest in a business that not only aims to create significant socioeconomic impact, but also has the potential for high growth and high income for the company, and offers attractive returns for the investors,” he said.

Wan Mohd Dazriq Wan Zulkiflee, the Chief Executive Officer of Ethis Malaysia said, “Ethis Sepakat offers impact investors promising opportunities as the business aims to increase paddy farmers’ income in Malaysia, whilst aiming to see healthy financial growth through its comprehensive Agriculture Technology-as-a-Service (ATaaS) strategy that includes the acquisition of efficient machinery services and its state of the art technology end-to-end solutions platform called BIDARATI, a fleet optimization and management software that enables the efficient collection of data.”

Empowering Malaysian paddy farmers - the most fragmented player in the farming industry

According to Khazanah Research Institute’s latest report on the paddy and rice industry, farmers in Malaysia earned a household income of RM2,527 a month. This figure is strikingly below the national average of RM6,958 a month and also below the average B40 (bottom 40) income level in Malaysia. This disparity has been attributed to paddy farmers’ being the smallest and most fragmented player in the industry.

Other pressing issues faced by Malaysian farmers include:

• ●  Small land size
• ●  Low yield
• ●  Inclement weather solutions
• ●  Poor farm management knowledge and practice

Estet Sepakat hopes to change this reality by improving the livelihoods of farmers in Malaysia by building a community of farmers that are data-centric and agri-tech driven. In addition to helping farmers, ES also wants to improve the country's food security by enhancing the national rice production level.

Through these solutions, ES hopes to achieve the following:

• Increase paddy farmers’ income from RM2,500 to RM5,000 per month by reducing cultivation cost by 15%, improving paddy yield by 2 tons ha per season and increasing farm sizes to 6.5 ha per farmer.
• Increase paddy revenue multi-fold through the expansion of harvesting areas and revenue per ha. The harvesting area will grow at a projection of about 12,000 Ha in year one to about 190,000 Ha in year five.
• Increase the national rice production by an additional 400,000 tonnes; Malaysia currently produces 2.7 million tonnes of paddy nationally. This goal is in line with the government’s aim to raise paddy production by up to 75% to meet the country’s needs.
• Serve a larger farmer population and land area through BIDARATI’s fleet optimization and management software.

A comprehensive Agriculture Technology-as-a-Service (ATaaS) strategy

ES will execute their plans based on an extensive Agriculture Technology-as-a-Service (ATaaS) strategy that includes the acquisition and management of efficient machinery services starting with mini harvesting machines before expanding to tractors, including driverless tractors, lorries and drones.

Through its wholly-owned subsidiary Data Clarity Sdn. Bhd. (DC), ES will develop an end-to-end solutions platform called BIDARATI, a fleet optimization and management software, which will provide services that include but are not limited to the purchase of seeds, farm management, fleet and equipment management, harvesting and an e-marketplace.

Through BIDARATI, ES will be able to serve a large farmer population and expansive land area. The platform will also enable efficient data collection and provide insights for other ATaaS services.

BIDARATI’s key features include:

• ●  Microcredit and payments distributed through an e-wallet
• ●  Fleet management and e-marketplace
• ●  Allow tracking and traceability
• ●  Mobile app with farm management services
• ●  Efficient machinery services
• ●  Financial intermediaries and crop insurance
• ●  Adopts a pay-per-use and subscription-based revenue model

(From left: Mr. Jamaludin, the Regional Manager of North; Ishafizan Ishar, the Executive Director and Head of Data/Software Architect; Lee Han Boon is Managing Director of Worldstart Malaysia, Amiruddin Ahmad Tajuddin, the ES Executive Director and Head of Operations; Lee Han Chee is Executive Director of Worldstart malaysia)

Tripartite agreement with the MIGHT and Koperasi FELCRA

To execute BIDARATI technology, ES through its wholly-owned subsidiary DC, has signed a strategic tripartite agreement with the non-profit technology think tank Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT) and Koperasi FELCRA. The agreement will allow the implementation of several ongoing initiatives which include reducing usage of plastics, sourcing for paddy straw and the adoption of high technology.

ES will be the main technology solution provider that manages the harvesting and sourcing of the raw material (paddy straw). The strategic partnership agreement with MIGHT and Koperasi FELCRA covers harvesting on 4,378.87 Ha of land, involving 1,554 farmers.

ATaaS market growing rapidly globally

There is growing adoption of ATaaS in countries where farm production and yield are slow and low, which also equates to lower income. An international ATaaS industry analysis projects the market to grow at a CAGR of 21.75% from 2019 to 2024.

Though still in its infancy, ATaaS is expected to grow rapidly in Malaysia and is the future of agriculture in the country.

The lower costs, scalability, integration and accessibility are some of the known benefits of ATaaS as a successful business model.

ES aims to be a regional ASEAN-based player in the industry in the next five years.

About Ethis Group

Ethis Malaysia is a part of Ethis Group which operates investment platforms approved by regulators in Indonesia and Malaysia, together with charity platform GlobalSadaqah.

Our platforms serve ordinary people, high-net-worth individuals, corporates and government entities. Ethis built our initial track record from 2016 to 2020 in social housing in Indonesia where our global community of investors from more than 50 countries funded development projects to build close to 100,000 homes.

Since the onset of COVID-19, we have launched popular new investment products, including short-term, high-yield supply-chain financing projects in Indonesia and equity investment in ‘future tech’ startups in Malaysia. Our social finance marketplace GlobalSadaqah plays a vital role in matching donors and Islamic economy players to better distribute social finance and zakat to NGOs and social enterprises.

We exist to #circulategood. Our deep desire to create a more ethical form of finance to uplift humanity has attracted significant finance and community leaders to support our vision and mission.

For more information about Ethis Malaysia, please visit https://ethis.co/my 

About Estet Sepakat

Estet Sepakat Sdn Bhd is an Agriculture Technology-as-a-Service (ATaaS) company that adopts efficient machine technology and data to improve farming. The company aims to build a community of paddy farmers that are tech-savvy and data-driven to help them create a sustainable long-term income.

© Press Release 2021