When she was young, Ottari Octavianti felt vulnerable because of her hometown of Kampung Bahru, a remote fishing village in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, where many do not have access to education.

That's why Octaviante considered herself "lucky" when her parents sent her to a high school in the city, but soon discovered that there was a "gap" between her and her classmates.

“I was bullied because I come from a coastal village, I was not like my colleagues who already had a good education and did not experience economic hardship,” Otari says.

In this report, published by the American "CNBC" website, writer Goh Chiu Tong touched on the story of this young woman in detail.

That experience sparked enthusiasm in Octaviante, who took it upon herself to make sure that her village was not once again known for its poverty but for its potential.

"At the time, I didn't know how to make this dream come true, I just wrote it in my diary," explains Otari Octavianti.

Today, the idea is no longer just words on paper but a reality.

Otari, now 28, is the co-founder of Aruna, an Indonesian fisheries e-commerce startup that acts as an aggregator of an end-to-end supply chain, giving fishermen access to a global network.

So far, the company has raised $65 million in Series A funding, which according to Aruna is the largest Series A funding for Indonesian startups.

humble beginnings

Octaviante's entrepreneurial journey began in 2015, spurred on by Octaviante's desire to eat seafood when she was a final-year tech college student in Bandung, where "good seafood" was not easy to find.

"My family used to eat seafood at home every day, but suddenly it became very difficult to find it. I thought how great it would be if we could buy seafood directly from the fishermen in the coastal villages."

Ottari Octavianti shared her idea with her classmates, Fred Nofal Aslam and Indraka Fadlallah, and together they created a website designed to meet consumers' demands for seafood and connect them with fishermen.

It was then that the 21-year-old group decided to join the Hackathon Merdeka for capital, and it was a surprise to them to win.

But the biggest surprise was the amount of interest Aruna attracted after the launch of the site, as they received nearly a thousand tons of seafood orders from customers, from restaurants and importing companies outside Indonesia that need a continuous supply of seafood.

The trio soon began working with two MacBooks they won in the hackathon to continue building on the website and supplementing the shortage with freelance web design staff.

The first big batch of capital came from another competition in which they won a cash prize of about $700.

Although the amount was "too little", Octavianti and her co-founders used it to run a pilot program in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, where they stayed with the fishing community for a month.

At the end of their stay, they made their first deal with a local restaurant in Bandung.

And that was the moment when they realized that their idea came to reality.

"I felt like we could actually make it happen," Octavianti says.

Find the right investors

Over the years, Aruna's business has expanded to include more fishing villages in Indonesia.

As the demand for seafood grew, the company's business also flourished.

But one of the challenges Octaviante faced was finding the right investors.

“There are many investors in Indonesia, but finding an investor who understands our business is not easy, and we were selective and wanted investors not to look at the company’s potential but its impact,” says Octavianti.

Octavianti adds that her company exported 44 million kilograms of seafood to 7 countries last year, mostly to the United States and China.

Octavianti believes that rigor in the choice of investors made the company more attractive. "We are open to investors about the challenges we face but in return we also expect them to, for example, help us communicate or solve problems."

sustainable future

In January, Arona announced the receipt of $30 million in Series A financing led by Vertex Ventures for Southeast Asia and India.

With the new funding received, Octavianti is looking to expand into more fishing villages in Indonesia and invest in sustainable fishing practices.

Currently, more than 26,000 fishermen in 150 fishing communities in Indonesia depend on Aruna.

Furthermore, the company inspires many fishermen and advises them not to use fishing gear such as trawls and bombs that would harm the marine environment.