The archive · Commerce & Marketplaces · Financial decision · 2016–2024
TaniHub's farm-supply and lending bet ends in license revocation and arrests
Indonesia's $65.5M-funded agritech bet on farm-to-table commerce and P2P lending collapsed after TaniFund's license was revoked in 2024.
TaniHub Group · TaniFund
What the business is
Farm-to-table marketplace connecting Indonesian farmers with restaurants and retailers, plus TaniFund peer-to-peer lending.
Starting capital：US$65.5M Series B in May 2021 led by MDI Ventures
How it started
TaniHub Group launched in 2016 to help smallholder farmers reach more customers. The idea: Indonesian agriculture was fragmented, with many small players and limited coverage, so a digital platform could shorten the chain between farmers and buyers and lift farmer income.
What happened
In May 2021 the group raised a US$65.5M Series B led by MDI Ventures (with BRI Ventures, Flourish Ventures, Openspace and others), claiming 45,000 farmers and 350,000 buyers. It then pivoted from B2C to B2B and aggressively expanded TaniFund, its P2P lending arm. By 2024 TaniFund's loans were souring; regulators said it missed minimum-equity rules and ignored OJK recommendations. On 3 May 2024 OJK revoked TaniFund's license (KEP-19/D.06/2024): Rp520.9B had been disbursed to 295 borrowers, Rp122.4B of it unpaid, owed to 7,096 lenders.
How it ended up
TaniFund was forced into liquidation and the group collapsed. In August 2025 prosecutors arrested ex-CEO Ivan Arie Sustiawan, former finance VP Edison Tobing, and MDI Ventures CEO Donald Wihardja over an alleged US$25M corruption and money-laundering scheme tied to state investors' 2019–2023 investments in TaniHub.
Background
TaniHub Group launched in 2016 to help Indonesian smallholder farmers reach more customers and raise their income. The pitch was that agriculture was fragmented — many small players, limited coverage, wide price gaps between farmers and consumers — so a digital platform could compress the chain.
The group raised a US$65.5M Series B in May 2021 led by MDI Ventures, Telkom's corporate VC arm, alongside BRI Ventures, Flourish Ventures and Openspace, and claimed a network of 45,000 farmers and 350,000 buyers. After the round it pivoted from B2C produce sales to B2B supply and pushed TaniFund, its P2P lending arm, as the growth engine.
The lending bet came apart. OJK revoked TaniFund's license on 3 May 2024 for missing minimum-equity requirements and ignoring supervisory recommendations; Rp520.9B had been lent to 295 borrowers, with Rp122.4B unpaid across 7,096 lenders. In August 2025, ex-CEO Ivan Arie Sustiawan, former finance VP Edison Tobing, and MDI Ventures CEO Donald Wihardja were arrested in an alleged US$25M corruption and money-laundering case tied to state investors' TaniHub stakes.
What has to be true
- Farm lending looks like demand but is credit risk: TaniFund reportedly used venture capital to cover loan defaults until capital ran out.
- Investor discipline failed: state-linked VCs poured $65.5M into a young marketplace and its lending arm without stopping the slide.
- The pivot from B2C to B2B plus embedded credit turned the marketplace into a supply-chain finance company, whose health depended on repayment.
What can be applied
When a marketplace funds its own growth with loans, credit risk becomes the product's risk: once defaults outrun capital, the marketplace and its lender are liquidated together.
Aftermath
As of September 2026 the group is defunct: TaniFund is in regulatory liquidation and the broader TaniHub business has stopped operations. The criminal case is the visible scar — prosecutors allege $25M of state-investor money flowed into TaniHub and TaniFund with irregular governance, and the detentions have become a cautionary tale for Indonesian VC.
Sources
- TaniHub Group secures $65.5 million for its agtech platform in Indonesia
- OJK Cabut Izin Pinjol TaniFund, Kredit Belum Dibayar Rp 122 Miliar
- Ini Alasan Lengkap OJK Cabut Izin Usaha TaniFund
- Our thoughts on the scandals in Indonesia's VC-startup ecosystem
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