Magalarva di Startup Arena Pitch Battle 2021
Last week, Tech in Asia held the Indonesian semifinals at the Startup Arena Pitch Battle 2021 in partnership with venture capital firm East Ventures.
Six startups had the opportunity to pitch in front of more than 2,000 viewers and a panel of three investor judges: Melisa Irene, Partner at East Ventures; Erline Diani, SVP Head of Digibank Business Growth at Bank DBS Indonesia; and Ongki Saputra, VP, Business Operations & COO Office at Traveloka.
Each startup is given five minutes to make their best pitch as well as an additional five minutes to answer questions. They are judged on how comprehensive their business idea and model is, as well as how investment-worthy they are.
Magalarva, a sustainable protein producer, who won the best pitch, won a one-week trial for App Annie Intelligence Lite and a US$2,500 cash prize sponsored by DBS Bank. Tridi Oasis, a plastic waste management company, was the runner-up. All semifinalists also won attractive prizes from DBS, Google Cloud, and Fore Coffee.
Jakarta generates more than 7,000 tonnes of waste every day which is rapidly filling up city landfills.
Magalarva's founders came up with a solution to that problem: the black soldier fly. Insect larvae are one of the fastest decomposers of organic waste. In addition, these young insects are rich in nutrients such as essential proteins, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals, which makes them the solution to another big problem: protein scarcity.
With the help of these flies, Magalarva aims to produce high-quality, sustainable animal feed while reducing the amount of organic waste that is disposed of in landfills across Indonesia.