The Rise and Fall of eFishery: A Billion-Dollar Fish Tale

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The Rise and Fall of eFishery: A Billion-Dollar Fish Tale

How did a promising aquaculture tech startup in Indonesia, once valued at over $1 billion, end up as one of Southeast Asia's most embarrassing investor flops? This is the story of eFishery, its enigmatic founder Gibron Huzaifah, and how a few manipulated spreadsheets duped some of the world's most sophisticated investors. It's also a cautionary tale about the limits of impact investing and the blind spots of venture capital in emerging markets.

Gibron Huzaifah was raised in East Jakarta, the son of a homemaker and a construction worker. He studied biology at the Bandung Institute of Technology, where a class in aquaculture—initially chosen for an easy A—sparked a fascination with fish farming. Inspired, Gabron launched eFishery with the aim of modernizing aquaculture through tech.

The startup's flagship product was a smart fish feeder—imagine an upside-down milk can rigged with a CD player to dispense feed remotely. Gabron traveled rural Indonesia on a motorbike, pitching his rudimentary invention to farmers. The machine addressed a real pain point: consistency and precision in feeding across sprawling fish ponds. Slowly, farmers bought in.

Venture capital took notice too. eFishery raised a modest $750,000 in pre-Series A funding from Dutch aquaculture-focused investor Aqua-Spark and a local VC. By 2018, however, the company was in serious trouble—it had less than $9,000 in its bank account and was burning cash fast. Unable to raise more money, Gabron was stuck. That’s when he opened an Excel sheet and started to manipulate his startup’s future.

One Spreadsheet to Fool Them All

What began as a "thought experiment" quickly turned into a full-blown deception. Gabron adjusted the numbers on the company’s financials to show impressive growth. He expected to be found out. Instead, the opposite happened.

Investors, including those who had previously passed, suddenly lined up to pour money in. That fudged spreadsheet helped close a $4 million Series A, and Gabron's illusion of success took off.

Year after year, he kept faking the numbers. To make the optics work, he persuaded real farmers to run their businesses through the eFishery platform in exchange for a cut, created fake accounts, and built multiple subsidiaries to simulate volume. At one point, eFishery reported $750 million in revenue for the first nine months of 2023. The actual figure? Just a fifth of that.

A Meteoric Rise Backed by Big Names

eFishery became the darling of impact investing. With a mission to uplift fish farmers using tech, it ticked every box for ESG-conscious funds. SoftBank, Sequoia India & Southeast Asia, and Singapore's state investor Temasek all came aboard. By 2022, the company was valued at $410 million. Eventually, it crossed the $1 billion mark, making it one of the few Indonesian startups to do so.

Despite all this success, Gabron lived modestly—driving a Hyundai Ioniq 5 and avoiding the trappings of wealth often associated with tech founders. His pitch? That he wasn’t just building a company—he was creating a movement, a new category called "fish tech."

But beneath the hype, there were red flags. The fish feed industry, for one, didn’t show any corresponding disruption despite eFishery’s supposed scale. Feed providers noticed no spike in demand. That discrepancy started to raise eyebrows.

Collapse, Whistleblowers, and Fallout

In November 2023, a whistleblower report to an eFishery board member revealed the truth: internal numbers didn’t match what had been shown to investors. By December, Gabron had confessed. He was suspended and replaced. Over $300 million in investor money had effectively vanished.

Gabron denied personally embezzling funds, claiming it was spent on operations, employees, and business partners. The startup laid off most of its workforce. Its signature feeders—once symbols of innovation—were reportedly sold to recyclers for about $6 apiece.

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Lessons from Southeast Asia’s Unicorn Mirage

How did auditors and high-profile investors miss all this? Grant Thornton, which audited the company’s 2022 financials, says it's investigating. But the failure speaks to a broader issue: venture capital’s difficulty in evaluating emerging markets.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago of over 17,000 islands, is a logistical nightmare. Verifying the operations of rural aquaculture farms requires local knowledge and physical access—both hard to come by. This geographic opacity allowed Gabron to carefully brief regional managers on what to say and keep up appearances.

The incident also underscores the frothiness of Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem in recent years. Impact investing has surged, with VCs eager to back startups that marry profits with purpose. But eFishery reveals the fragility of that model when due diligence fails.

The Aftermath—and What’s Next

Today, Gabron’s life resembles his pre-unicorn days. He’s selling frozen seafood and helping former employees start co-ops. Legal consequences may still loom, with investigations ongoing. But the illusion he sustained for 13 years unraveled in less than three months.

As investors sift through the wreckage, the eFishery saga may prompt tougher scrutiny for Southeast Asian startups. Growth will no longer be enough—proof, transparency, and real impact must follow.

In the end, eFishery isn’t just a story about one founder’s fall. It’s a wake-up call for global investors operating in markets where ambition often outpaces accountability.

Interested in learning more about such scams? Check out our previous coverage here:

• The Gensol and BluSmart Saga: A Deep Dive into Alleged Fraud, EV Hype, and Investor Shock

• CEO Explains How He Faked Results in $300 Million Meltdown

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Peeyush and Mohit

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