2018 was a great year for us. This year we took off like a rocket and shared our mission to empower millions of people through data all around the globe, building a great community of like-minded individuals on the way. Our pilot projects shaped up great and we are very excited about what their success indicates for the coming year. With lots of good stuff still ahead, let’s take a minute to reflect on all that we have already accomplished this past year.

Product Development

Our pilot deployments were a great success, indicating there is a real need for what our product offers. Even though we’ve only tapped into a select number of locations, our cadres of HARA field agents have already hit a milestone by helping over 11.000 farmers join our ecosystem!

The impact of our services is already being felt. In cooperation with two big Indonesian banks, we have been able to help them extend microcredit loans to hundreds of smallholder farmers. To this day, their repayment rate is an unprecedented 100% and both financial institutions expressed great interest to continue working together in the coming year.

We established partnerships with 20 different institutions, NGOs, and banks — including leading blockchain tech companies like Pundi X and Bluzelle — all with an eye on creating a real social impact. With more interest coming in every day, that number will likely keep growing in the coming year, expanding and accelerating the impact we will have.

Our engineers haven’t been sitting idle either. They have made great strides in further developing our products, as well refining the existing applications with the lessons we learned in the field. Most notably, this year saw the release of the HARA Chain, and we started testing an early version of the HARA Wallet inside our offices.

Blockchain Education

Apart from focusing on our own product, we’ve also taken a leading role to support the blockchain education in Indonesia and the region. HARA was one of the key players involved in the launch of the Indonesia Blockchain Hub, the first ever blockchain community hub in Indonesia.

We’ve also had the pleasure of conducting multiple sharing sessions with various stakeholders. For example, Bank Indonesia invited HARA to discuss blockchain technology at large, and we facilitated a workshop for the Indonesian Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing supported by World Bank.

Most notably, we organized roadshow events in 11 Indonesian cities to raise awareness about the technology and its potential.

Worldwide Recognition

Our activities put us in the spotlight and attracted major media recognition. During the year we were featured on Vice, CNN, Forbes, Channel News Asia, Yahoo Finance, ICO Today, Tempo, Voice of America, and many others.

HARA starred in the first episode of Amazon’s web series Now Go Build, in which the tech giants’ VP and CTO Werner Vogels travels across the globe to find out what challenges startup founders face in building their business.

This year we’ve also collected several prestigious honors. We were awarded the “Best Blockchain Project from Asia” at the Europe Blockshow and the Korean Asian Economy TV Station named us “ICO of the Month”.

We were invited to the Blockchain for Social Impact Conference (BSIC) 2018, held by Consensys at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington DC, and were one of the startups invited to present at the exclusive World Bank Organization’s Global Housing Finance Conference.

Finally, at the end of the year our CEO Regi Wahyu was elected to become an Ashoka Fellow, joining the ranks of a prestigious global organization that promotes social entrepreneurship.

Counting Down for Take Off

All of the excitement around our project was made tangible when we sold out our HARA Token Pre-sale back in November.

In the last few months, we’ve really been focused on our project deployments and product integration with our strategic partners. This has produced some incredible results, which we are very excited to share with you in the new year.

In 2019, we are going to continue working hard to create a real social impact and already have some important plans lined up. As a sneak peek of things to come, we can tell you that we are also currently preparing the roll out of an insurance product for farmers together with one of our partners, and we plan to scale up our collaborations with financial institutions.

We’re also laying the foundations for our first international deployment expansion to Africa, and the first research report using HARA data is being finalized. Soon, you’ll be able to access that report and more yourself through the HARA Dashboard.

Don’t forget that our public sale stage of our Initial Token Sale is also right around the corner. The sale will kick off on January 21 and will last until January 30. Make sure to keep an eye on our channels for the latest information.

As the new year approaches, we look forward to continuing working hard towards our goal of creating a real social impact that will see the people at the bottom of the pyramid prosper. We at HARA want to thank you all for your support and wish you all a very Happy New Year!