Daily Markup #417: eFishery reels in US$90M to expand to 10 countries; Easyship brought innovation to crowdfunding in 2021; Lingokids introduces 10M new families to playlearning

Fresh funds

• 500-backed eFishery announced it has raised a US$90 million Series C round, which it claims to be the largest funding round in the world by an aquaculture tech startup. The round was co-led by Temasek, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and Sequoia Capital India.
• According to the startup, the funds will be used to scale up eFishery’s platform and expand into the top 10 countries for aquaculture, including China and India.
• eFishery’s platform provides farmers with access to technology, feed, financing, and markets. It claims that more than 7,000 farmers have benefited from its financing services so far, with over US$28 million in loans approved.
• Gibran Huzaifah, co-founder and CEO said it aims to acquire one million farmers in three to five years and to recruit a thousand new employees this year.
• Read the full article on TechCrunch.

A smooth delivery

• What was 500-backed shipping platform Easyship up to in 2021? In this article, it chronicles its journey throughout the year, highlighting significant milestones.
• It launched Easyship Collect, which it calls “the most significant innovation to come to crowdfunding in years”. Made exclusively for crowdfunders, it allows backers to upgrade their shipping, prepay duty and tax, and add insurance.
• Easyship’s data shows that 84% of backers report fewer customer service issues and a 46% increase in customer satisfaction when they use Easyship Collect.
• The startup also launched a new insurance portal to serve merchants which reduces claims filings to only one minute, among other features.
• Check out Easyship’s full journey here.

Putting fun in learning

• In a video, 500-backed edtech startup Lingokids said it has accomplished a lot in 2021, reporting:
  • Over 40 million downloads to date
  • 163 new activities developed
  • Onboarded 10 million new families
  • Over 11 million hours logged playlearning^TM
• The startup also received a nomination for Best Learning App at the KidScreen Awards.
• In June 2021, Lingokids announced that it has raised US$40 million in its Series C round. It said the funds will be used to develop new engaging content for kids, expand its engineering and development teams, and develop new audio content that will focus on topics related to mental health, mindfulness, and meditation.
• Watch the video here.