(Feb 13): eFishery Pte is eliminating more than 1,000 jobs, or about 90% of the workforce, as the Indonesian agritech company suspected of fraud weighs a potential liquidation.

The cuts began recently and more reductions are set to follow, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified as the matter is private. The company’s total headcount stood in the region of 1,600 jobs.

The high-profile startup, backed by investors including SoftBank Group Corp and Temasek Holdings Pte, is unravelling after a board investigation revealed it may have inflated its revenue and profit over several years. The company had raised hundreds of millions of dollars, and its demise would deal a blow to the local startup industry’s efforts to attract more global investors.

An adviser is recommending that investors decide whether to liquidate or restructure eFishery as soon as this month, Bloomberg News reported last week. Meanwhile, a trade union organised by staff has been pushing for the company to cancel mass layoff plans and resume its business.

A representative for FTI Consulting Singapore Pte, the adviser hired by eFishery’s board to take over management of the company, declined to comment. News outlet Tech in Asia earlier reported on eFishery’s job cuts.

A preliminary, ongoing probe into the startup estimated that management inflated revenue by almost US$600 million (RM2.6 billion) in the nine months through September last year, Bloomberg News reported earlier. That would mean more than 75% of the reported figures were fake.

eFishery, which deploys feeders to fish and shrimp farmers in Indonesia, was a darling of the nation’s startup scene and scored a valuation of US$1.4 billion when G42, an AI firm controlled by United Arab Emirates royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, backed its latest funding round.

It has attempted to modernise the country’s fish industry, providing farmers with smart feeding devices as well as feed, and then buying their produce to sell into the broader market.

Uploaded by Magessan Varatharaja