Aruna aims to help fishermen in Indonesia improve livelihoods through better market access and fairer trading opportunities

The Alipay-NUS Enterprise Social Innovation Challenge, which was jointly launched by Chinese e-payment giant Alipay and the National University of Singapore (NUS) entrepreneurial arm NUS Enterprise, has named Indonesian fishery startup Aruna as winner of the event’s grand final round.

Aruna is a platform that uses digital technology to help fishermen in Indonesia improve livelihoods through better market access and fairer trading opportunities.

The startup aims to “dramatically” reduce transaction cost by connecting fishermen and potential customers, helping fishermen raise selling prices by as much as 20 per cent while buyers can pay up to 15 per cent less.

The startup has served 1,701 fishermen in 16 provinces in Indonesia.

In a press statement, Aruna CEO Farid Naufal Aslam said that the startup is “very excited” to win the awards.

Also Read: Fishery platform Aruna raises seed funding, aims to reach out to more fishermen in Indonesia

“This is the first time we have won international recognition for our work. We will next work on further growing our team and help more fishermen out of poverty,” he said.

Aruna will receive a total of S$60,000 (US$44,000) as grand finals winner while the other eight finalists from Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia will receive S$10,000 (US$7,000) each.

These nine startups will also be given support from NUS Enterprise, Alipay, special partner International Finance Corporation (IFC), and other supporting partners to further develop their ideas.

In addition to the cash prize, the winner and all other finalists will benefit from the 10×1000 Tech for Inclusion programme, jointly established by IFC and Alipay.

The training programme aims to support the cultivation of 10,000 technology experts in emerging markets from both public and private sectors over the next 10 years.

Since its launch in October 2018, the 10×1000 programme has conducted preliminary surveys to optimise its training modules and has hosted a number of training and exchange activities.

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Image Credit: Alipay-NUS Enterprise Social Innovation Challenge

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