AquaBloom raises seed round to turn Indonesian seaweed into crop protection
What's the deal? Jakarta-based agri-biotech startup AquaBloomDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has raised an undisclosed seed round led by Spiral VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, with Potato Impact PartnersDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Archipelago VCDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and several angels participating. Founded in 2024 by chief executive officer Michelle Arsjad, the company makes seaweed-based biostimulants for crops and feed additives for livestock. The money will fund manufacturing capacity, R&D, field trials, and distribution across Indonesia.
What's the endgame? AquaBloom wants seaweed grown by coastal smallholders to strengthen crops for inland smallholders squeezed by rising costs and erratic weather. Biostimulants help plants absorb nutrients and cope with heat and drought, promising better yields with less synthetic fertiliser.
Why now? Indonesia is the world's second-largest seaweed producer after China, yet close to two-thirds of its seaweed exports leave as raw commodity, according to UNCTAD. Between January and October 2025, the country exported US$264.6 million worth of seaweed, with China buying US$183.6 million. In October, minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan urged faster downstreaming so the crop becomes value-added products rather than raw exports.
What does the company claim? AquaBloom says its products have been validated on almost 30 crops across more than 40 field trials in Indonesia, with yield improvements of 20% to 30%. It points to El Niño-hit rice plots this September, where treated paddies showed taller shoots than control plots.
What could go wrong? The company has not shared who ran each trial, across how many seasons, or how results varied by crop. Yield gains in a drought year can look very different in a normal one, and the farm benefits still need evidence of reliable results at scale.
Why did investors sign? Spiral Ventures's Irawan Ganda, partner and head of Southeast Asia, points to three products already registered for sale in Indonesia and a team drawn from BayerDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, SyngentaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and CortevaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. Archipelago VC's Olivier Lentze says his firm first met Arsjad in 2025, before AquaBloom had earned a single rupiah, then watched it land larger clients over 18 months.
The signal: AquaBloom joins a nascent Indonesian push to turn tropical seaweed into farm inputs, alongside peers such as ZentideDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and Birufinery. With Coast 4CDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → raising $2.5 million for smallholder seaweed farming in June 2026, investor interest in the sector is building — though AquaBloom remains an early bet on locally sourced farm resilience, not proof that seaweed biostimulants are a scaled climate solution.
Read more: e27.co
Image credit: wendylin20
