bigideaventures
  • Accelerator
  • Funds
  • Portfolio
  • Team
  • Events
  • Media
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Apply
Select Page

Food tech startups in Singapore are serving up lab-grown milk and ‘fake’ shrimp dumplings

by admin | Sep 20, 2020 | Press

The coronavirus crisis has magnified Singapore‘s food security concerns — an issue made worse by climate change — and the city-state is looking to ramp up its local food production.

Tech entrepreneurs say they want to help. To boost national self-sufficiency, more local start-ups are creating edible products from natural ingredients and cell culture technology.

Some examples include lab-grown milk from TurtleTree Labs, Shiok Meats’ cultured shrimp and Life3 Biotech’s plant-based proteins. Such ventures could benefit Singapore, as they can reduce the island-nation’s import bill as well as its carbon footprint.

Singapore, a tiny country that imports 90% of its food due to land scarcity, is vulnerable to food shortages and price volatility. The situation was exacerbated when Covid-19 first struck and people rushed to stockpile items.

But even before the pandemic, Singapore’s food supply was vulnerable to extreme weather patterns. Its neighbors face a similar predicament.

“Asia is unable to feed itself, relying on imports flowing through long supply chains from the Americas, Europe and Africa,” audit firm PwC, Rabobank, and Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek warned in a report released late last year, before any of the coronavirus cases were reported.

As the outbreak wreaked havoc on global agricultural supply chains, Singapore also faced the additional risk of disruptions to its food supplies, like many other countries. Delivery times for shipments of vegetables and other perishable goods from farms to supermarkets are now longer as new hygiene rules slow down logistics.

In the longer term, labor crunches could also hit planting and harvesting in neighboring countries such as Malaysia and Thailand, which are among Singapore’s top food sources.

Singapore needs food sources that aren’t environmentally damaging.
Ricky Lin
FOUNDER OF LIFE3 BIOTECH

Most of the current innovations in Singapore’s food tech sector are centered on alternatives to animal products — a major cause of global warming.

“Singapore needs food sources that aren’t environmentally damaging,” Ricky Lin, founder of Life3 Biotech, told CNBC. The company’s plant-based formulas — which contain fungi, lentils, grains and soybeans — mimic the taste of chicken and seafood. Its offerings are expected to hit markets later this year when customer trials with fast food chains, restaurants and hotels are done, Lin said.

His team also cultivates edible microalgae, tiny plant-like organisms found in rivers and oceans, that act as a healthy substitute to fish and help minimize overfishing.

Reduced meat consumption in human diets can curb worldwide carbon dioxide emissions by up to eight billion tonnes per year and free up several million square kilometres of land, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found in a 2019 report.

Handout: Shiok Meats

Siu Mai, a traditional steamed Chinese dumpling, made with Shiok Meats’ cultured shrimp.
Courtesy of Shiok Meats

Another start-up making waves is Shiok Meats, which grows minced crab, lobster and shrimp meat in a lab by extracting cells from the real creature. The firm has received over $7 million in funding to-date from investors such as London-listed Agronomics and American seed accelerator Y Combinator and is continuing to raise more capital with the goal of setting up its first manufacturing plant by 2022.

“Singaporean consumers are open and interested to learn more about cell-based seafood and want to try it,” said its CEO and co-founder Sandhya Sriram, citing surveys that her team had conducted. She said Singapore was no stranger to lab-grown food, being the first Southeast Asian nation to carry Impossible Foods’ plant-based burger and JUST’s mung-bean based eggs.

However, it remains to be seen if consumer demand will make up for the high manufacturing expenses that a company like Shiok Meats incurs.

The cost of making lab-grown food compared to traditional farming is the biggest hurdle for biotech companies, said Leong Lai Peng, a senior lecturer in food science and technology at the National University of Singapore. “What is the most expensive food in the market or what food is the consumer willing to empty their pocket for? That will probably be the most practical thing to make in the lab,” she said.

Perfect breeding ground

Widespread government support makes Singapore an ideal market for alternative protein companies, industry players say.

The government is set to allocate over $100 million to food research programs such as urban agriculture, cultured meat and microbial protein production under the Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2020 Plan.

“As consumers choose more of these options, the volumes and scale will increase, which allows manufacturers to reduce their prices while maintaining quality.
Andrew Ive
BIG IDEA VENTURES

Two other government-owned entities — the Singapore Food Agency, and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research — also announced a grant in late 2019 for start-ups in the sector. The Southeast Asian nation has pledged to produce more than 30% of its nutritional needs by 2030 and is currently working on a regulatory framework for novel food items, such as alternative proteins.

Plant and cell-based foods are currently more expensive than animal-based food products, but there’s potential for massive scale in the near future, according to venture capitalists.

“As consumers choose more of these options, the volumes and scale will increase, which allows manufacturers to reduce their prices while maintaining quality,” explained Andrew Ive, founder and managing general partner at Big Idea Ventures.

Handout: Shiok Meats - 106375309

Shiok Meats researcher in the lab
Courtesy of Shiok Meats

His company, located in New York and Singapore, launched a $50 million fund and an accelerator program last year for alternative protein companies. It’s since backed various Singapore companies such as Shiok Meats, plant-based start-up Karana which focuses on jackfruit, Confetti Fine Foods that makes vegan chips with real vegetables, as well as Gaia Foods, another cultured meat player.

“We invest in companies that have the potential to be global platforms i.e. products which can meet demand in multiple geographies,” said Ive.

Going forward, he anticipates greater investment toward plant-based start-ups and hopes more animal protein companies will collaborate with them.

Recent Posts

  • 5 Alternative Protein Innovation Trends To Watch In 2023
  • Big Idea Ventures’ Generation Food Rural Partners Fund Receives Rural Business Investment Company License From USDA
  • Big Idea Ventures announces Investment in Multus Biotechnology
  • WTH Foods Launches Frozen Plant-Based Meat Line
  • Black Sheep Foods closes $12.3 million Series A round

Categories

  • Blog
  • Events
  • Podcast
  • Portfolio
  • Press
  • Research Paper
  • Uncategorized
Apply New York Apply Singapore Apply Paris
  • Contact
  • Funds
  • Investing
  • Partners
  • Portfolio
  • Research
  • Terms
  • Anti Spam
  • Copyright
  • DMCA
  • FTC
  • Privacy
  • Social Media
New York

88 Pine St., 14th Floor
New York, NY 10005

Singapore

28a Keong Saik Road,
SG 089135

Paris

Station F, 5 Parv. Alan Turing 75013 Paris, France 

Newsletter
Stay on top of our latest news.
Loading
Don’t worry, we won’t spam you.
© 2020 Big Idea Ventures. All Rights Reserved
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
 
Required 'Candidate' login to applying this job. Click here to logout And try again
 

Login to your account

  • Forgot Password?

Reset Password

  • Already have an account? Login

Enter the username or e-mail you used in your profile. A password reset link will be sent to you by email.

Close
 

Answers

 

Account Activation

Before you can login, you must active your account with the code sent to your email address. If you did not receive this email, please check your junk/spam folder. Click here to resend the activation email. If you entered an incorrect email address, you will need to re-register with the correct email address.