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Indonesia arrests founder of high-flying fish start-up over fraud scandal
An investigation revealed aquaculture start-up eFishery claimed revenues of over US$500 million more than its true earnings
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Indonesian police have detained the co-founder of eFishery, investigating a start-up whose collapse shook up Southeast Asia’s investment and tech community.
Gibran Huzaifah was detained last week by the white-collar crimes division, the police said. He and two other former eFishery executives have remained in custody since July 31, according to a text message from Helfi Assegaf, director of special economic crimes at the National Police’s Criminal Investigation Agency.
The three have been “officially named as suspects”, according to the police, though it is unclear if any have been officially charged with wrongdoing.
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Gibran’s detention comes months after he gave a detailed account of how he inflated revenue at a start-up once valued north of US$1 billion. Its ultimate collapse dealt a blow to several of the world’s highest-profile investors from SoftBank Group and Temasek Holdings to Peak XV (formerly Sequoia India) and Abu Dhabi’s 42X Fund.
The company, which deployed feeders to fish and shrimp farmers in Indonesia, incurred several hundred million dollars in losses between 2018 and 2024. It began unravelling after a board investigation revealed the start-up might have inflated its revenue and profit over several years.
EFishery, which was valued at US$1.4 billion after a 2023 funding round, had been one of the highest-profile start-ups to emerge from Indonesia. By the time it collapsed, the scheme had blown up into a multinational web of shell companies and padded accounts.
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