Asia Food & Beverages Report (May/June 2021 issue)

Investment News
Investment News
GLOBAL
Asia Food & Beverages 8
HONEY ALTERNATIVE/SUBSTITUTE
Vegan Honey start-up secures
funding prior to commercial launch
New US start-up MeliBio has found a way to
produce honey without the need for bees.
It has secured pre-seed funding from a group
of investors ahead of its full commercial launch
in 2022.
MeliBio was established in 2020 in California
by Aaron Schaller and Darko Mandich. Its
honey alternative was developed using a
proprietary technology based on ‘synthetic
biology, precision fermentation, and plant
science that replaces honeybees as a medium
for honey production.’
MeliBio aims for a soft launch at the end of
the year to supply foodservice customers with
honey as a base ingredient before a full roll out
in the 1st half of 2022.
MeliBio is part of an accelerator programme
run by Big Idea Ventures (BIV), an alternativeprotein
venture fund with offices in New York,
Paris and Singapore which contributed to the
US$850,000 pre-seed round. BIV recently
secured backing from France’s Bel Group,
adding to Bühler, Singapore’s state venturecapital
fund Temasek and US meat giant
Tyson Foods. Others joining the MeliBio round
include global venture fund Joyance Partners,
New York-based peer 18.ventures, Australian
accelerator Sparklabs Cultiv8 and Sustainable
Food Ventures amongst others.
MeliBio CEO Mandich said, “We are thrilled
to have support from the investors who believe
in the world our company wants to create. That
world is the place where the most delicious and
nutritious food is accessible to everyone, but
not at the expense of the sustainability of our
planet.”
Andrew Ive, Founder and a managing partner
of BIV said, “MeliBio has the real potential to
change not just the honey category but the
whole sweetener and skincare industries with a
new and sustainable way to create real honey
without the bees. MeliBio has created the first
truly vegan honey.”
The global honey market was valued at US$9
billion. Currently, the industry entirely relies on
honeybees and faces many issues related to
sustainability and its negative impact on bee
biodiversity.
SPICES/SEASONINGS
Olam Food Ingredients acquires
major spice supplier
OLAM Food Ingredients (OFI), a unit
of Singapore-listed agri-food giant Olam
International, is set to see its global business
expand with the recent acquisition of US
private-label spice supplier Olde Thompson for
US$950 million.
A Shekhar, OFI’s Chief Executive, said that the
acquisition will ‘dramatically expand’ the group’s
private label solutions in the spices segment.
The private label business makes products for
sale under another company’s brand.
This part of OFI is relatively small compared to
the units dealing in coffee and nuts. Mr Shekhar
said the additional scale could give the spices
segment incremental margin improvements,
although complex and fragmented supply
chains and the relative price inelasticity of
spices already means it commands one of the
higher margins among the OFI units.
OFI currently supplies raw materials in bulk
to retail packers, including to Olde Thompson.
The packers then formulate, blend and
create retail products for customers. With the
acquisition, Olam will move further downstream
into dry spices, blends and seasonings in retail
packs with access to the best retailers in North
America, a huge market.
Olde Thompson will create a substantive
growth platform for OFI to provide similar
sustainable and innovative retail solutions
across its other products. OFI added that the
acquisition will build on its recent 2 acquisitions
in the North American spices sector - the
US-based chilli pepper business of Mizkan
America, and the onion ingredients business of
Cascade Specialties.
OFI currently accounts for 40% of Olde
Thompson’s raw material procurements.
Following the acquisition, Mr Shekhar believes
this could double. This will also result in lower
operational costs. For instance, the group could
blend spices on-site at lower cost countries
such as Vietnam, but pack them at Olde
Thompson sites.
OFI is also looking at cross-selling across
other business segments as well. For example,
turmeric can be blended with coffee and dairy
to produce turmeric lattes.
In addition, OFI will also be able to offer
spice-added solutions such as pasta sauces or
seasonings, though these may require different
manufacturing or packing capabilities.
Shekar added, “Olde Thompson’s capacity,
systems and customer knowledge will enable
us to create these solutions far more quickly
than what we could have done on our own.”
LAB GROWN MEAT SUBSTITUTE
Eat Just raise largest funding for
Cell-based Meat
US-based Eat Just Inc., an alternative protein
startup, has recently raised US$170 million
funding for Good Meat, its cell-grown meat
division.
The funding represents the largest single
round in history for that mode of meat
production, the company said. It comes after
Singapore became the first country to grant
regulatory approval to Good Meat to sell cellgrown
meat.
To date, Eat Just and its subsidiaries have
raised US$820 million.
Eat Just will use the fund to ramp up production
capacity and pursue scalability, which has long
been the critical unanswered question for the
sector’s long-term growth. In recent months,
the company has been in hiring mode and
expanding its technology and manufacturing
infrastructure for distribution in Singapore
and to prepare for eventual entry into the US
market.
Eat Just co-founder and CEO Josh Tetrick
hopes to get regulatory approval for Good
Meat’s main product, Good Chicken in the US
market by the end of 2021. It plans to scale
production with multimillion-dollar investments
in US and Singapore facilities, while evaluating
partnerships and acquisition opportunities
within the alternative protein sector.
Tetrick said, “Eat without killing animals will
replace conventional meat at some point in our
lifetimes. The faster we make that happen, the
healthier our planet will be.”
SINGAPORE
PLANT-BASED PROTEIN
ChickP to expand in APAC with new
office in Singapore
ChickP Protein, Ltd. is expanding into Asia
Pacific with the launch of a new office in
Singapore. The strategic move is in response
to the rapidly growing demand for plant-based
products in the region, with Singapore being
the main centre of development for this new
segment.
The new subsidiary will bring the start-up
closer to its Asian customers, and it has also
appointed Moy Teo as the company’s Business
Development Director for Asia. With 20 years
hands-on experience in the food ingredient
space within the APAC region, Moy joins the
ChickP team to lead its development in Asia
with its patented and highly functional chickpea
isolate that boasts a 90% protein content. This
move follows the acquisition of her distribution
business by a group in the Netherlands. Moy
said, “Chickpea is a well-known and highly
venerated crop in Asia. The region makes
up more than 85% of chickpea consumption
globally. ChickP’s 90% chickpea isolate has
unique functional and organoleptic qualities
making it applicable for a full spectrum of food
and beverage formulations.”
ChickP experienced a significant jump in
demand for its ChickP protein in the Asia Pacific
region. The new local office will include a
warehouse to alleviate the logistical bottlenecks
experienced throughout the pandemic era that
slowed supplies to its APAC-based customers
in 20 countries.
Itay Dana, VP of Sales and Business
Development of ChickP said, “Asia is an
important market for ChickP; we already partner
with local food companies to advance plantbased
innovations. This move to Singapore
is part of ChickP’s global extension beyond
the joint market development agreement with
Socius Ingredients, Inc. in the US. We also
signed a contract with a distributor in South
Africa, with the next step in the European
market.”
PLANT-BASED MEAT
SingCell to license ‘plant-based’
technology from National University
of Singapore
Eat Beyond Global Holdings Inc. (Eat Beyond),
an investment firm focused on the plant-based
and alternative food sector, recently announced
that its portfolio company SingCell Tx Pte Ltd
(SingCell) has entered into a technology
development agreement with the National
University of Singapore (NUS) to evaluate and
license its plant-based edible microcarriers
technology.
According to Karolis Rosickas, CEO of
SingCell, “The initial performance of these
microcarriers in terms of cell attachment
and proliferation is very promising and could
solve the cost and scalability issues in the
cultured meat industry. This technology is very
complementary to SingCell’s existing 3D cell
culture technology, and soon we will be able
to offer a more comprehensive bioprocessing
scale-up solution to our clients.”
SingCell operates as a contract development
and manufacturing organisation (CDMO),
offering its proprietary platform to 3rd party
alternative meat companies, which provides
scalable processes for cultured meat
manufacturing. SingCell has a rapidly growing
pipeline of potential projects.
Eat Beyond CEO Patrick Morris said, “SingCell
is focused on improving the feasibility of the
cultured meat industry by focusing purely on
the cost and scalability of the technology,” said
Eat Beyond CEO Patrick Morris. “The company
is also located in Singapore, which is truly
the epicenter of this industry and was the first
jurisdiction globally to approve cell based meat
for consumption.”
The Singapore government has placed a
major focus on innovation that will drive food
security and make the nation less dependent
on foreign suppliers. SingCell is well positioned
to leverage these programs to develop its
technology and manufacturing infrastructure in
Singapore.
PLANT-BASED MILK
Oatly to build 1 st production facility
in Asia in Singapore
Swedish dairy-free producer of oat milk
beverages, Oatly is setting up its first
manufacturing facility in Asia in Singapore,
through a partnership with Yeo Hiap Seng, a
leading beverage firm in the region.
Both partners will invest a combined US$30
million to build a plant in Sembawang, in the
northern part of Singapore, to manufacture