Banyu bets better seedlings can move Indonesia up the seaweed value chain

Banyu is a Jakarta-based, technology-enabled seaweed company founded in December 2023. Its bet: Indonesia is the world's largest producer of tropical seaweed and home to more than a million people who make a living from cultivation, yet the industry still runs on low-quality inputs, labour-intensive methods, opaque prices and almost no technology — so upgrading the upstream supply chain is a business, not just an aid project.

The company's core innovation is proprietary spore seedling production, which has shown yield increases of up to 20 percent over the common practice of reusing derivative seedlings from previous harvests. Banyu supplies those seedlings plus training and advanced farming techniques to smallholder farmers, then works with traders and downstream processors to match supply to specific buyer requirements — species, quantity, and environmental and social standards.

In January 2025, Intudo Ventures led a US$1.25 million seed round that Banyu used to establish a seedling cultivation laboratory and nursery, expand farming and export operations, and scale toward becoming Indonesia's largest high-volume seedling producer. Initial expansion targets Sulawesi, the country's seaweed production capital, before moving to other producing regions.

Banyu's leadership pairs seaweed farming, microfinance and sustainability backgrounds — CEO Dodon Yamin, Chief Sustainability Officer Anis Nur Aini and President Commissioner Anthony Kwik. Buyers include international FMCG and ingredient companies, with emerging applications in biofertilizers and bioplastics.