Investment NewsInvestment NewsGLOBALAsia Food & Beverages 8HONEY ALTERNATIVE/SUBSTITUTEVegan Honey start-up securesfunding prior to commercial launchNew US start-up MeliBio has found a way toproduce honey without the need for bees.It has secured pre-seed funding from a groupof investors ahead of its full commercial launchin 2022.MeliBio was established in 2020 in Californiaby Aaron Schaller and Darko Mandich. Itshoney alternative was developed using aproprietary technology based on ‘syntheticbiology, precision fermentation, and plantscience that replaces honeybees as a mediumfor honey production.’MeliBio aims for a soft launch at the end ofthe year to supply foodservice customers withhoney as a base ingredient before a full roll outin the 1st half of 2022.MeliBio is part of an accelerator programmerun by Big Idea Ventures (BIV), an alternativeproteinventure fund with offices in New York,Paris and Singapore which contributed to theUS$850,000 pre-seed round. BIV recentlysecured backing from France’s Bel Group,adding to Bühler, Singapore’s state venturecapitalfund Temasek and US meat giantTyson Foods. Others joining the MeliBio roundinclude global venture fund Joyance Partners,New York-based peer 18.ventures, Australianaccelerator Sparklabs Cultiv8 and SustainableFood Ventures amongst others.MeliBio CEO Mandich said, “We are thrilledto have support from the investors who believein the world our company wants to create. Thatworld is the place where the most delicious andnutritious food is accessible to everyone, butnot at the expense of the sustainability of ourplanet.”Andrew Ive, Founder and a managing partnerof BIV said, “MeliBio has the real potential tochange not just the honey category but thewhole sweetener and skincare industries with anew and sustainable way to create real honeywithout the bees. MeliBio has created the firsttruly vegan honey.”The global honey market was valued at US$9billion. Currently, the industry entirely relies onhoneybees and faces many issues related tosustainability and its negative impact on beebiodiversity.SPICES/SEASONINGSOlam Food Ingredients acquiresmajor spice supplierOLAM Food Ingredients (OFI), a unitof Singapore-listed agri-food giant OlamInternational, is set to see its global businessexpand with the recent acquisition of USprivate-label spice supplier Olde Thompson forUS$950 million.A Shekhar, OFI’s Chief Executive, said that theacquisition will ‘dramatically expand’ the group’sprivate label solutions in the spices segment.The private label business makes products forsale under another company’s brand.This part of OFI is relatively small compared tothe units dealing in coffee and nuts. Mr Shekharsaid the additional scale could give the spicessegment incremental margin improvements,although complex and fragmented supplychains and the relative price inelasticity ofspices already means it commands one of thehigher margins among the OFI units.OFI currently supplies raw materials in bulkto retail packers, including to Olde Thompson.The packers then formulate, blend andcreate retail products for customers. With theacquisition, Olam will move further downstreaminto dry spices, blends and seasonings in retailpacks with access to the best retailers in NorthAmerica, a huge market.Olde Thompson will create a substantivegrowth platform for OFI to provide similarsustainable and innovative retail solutionsacross its other products. OFI added that theacquisition will build on its recent 2 acquisitionsin the North American spices sector - theUS-based chilli pepper business of MizkanAmerica, and the onion ingredients business ofCascade Specialties.OFI currently accounts for 40% of OldeThompson’s raw material procurements.Following the acquisition, Mr Shekhar believesthis could double. This will also result in loweroperational costs. For instance, the group couldblend spices on-site at lower cost countriessuch as Vietnam, but pack them at OldeThompson sites.OFI is also looking at cross-selling acrossother business segments as well. For example,turmeric can be blended with coffee and dairyto produce turmeric lattes.In addition, OFI will also be able to offerspice-added solutions such as pasta sauces orseasonings, though these may require differentmanufacturing or packing capabilities.Shekar added, “Olde Thompson’s capacity,systems and customer knowledge will enableus to create these solutions far more quicklythan what we could have done on our own.”LAB GROWN MEAT SUBSTITUTEEat Just raise largest funding forCell-based MeatUS-based Eat Just Inc., an alternative proteinstartup, has recently raised US$170 millionfunding for Good Meat, its cell-grown meatdivision.The funding represents the largest singleround in history for that mode of meatproduction, the company said. It comes afterSingapore became the first country to grantregulatory approval to Good Meat to sell cellgrownmeat.To date, Eat Just and its subsidiaries haveraised US$820 million.Eat Just will use the fund to ramp up productioncapacity and pursue scalability, which has longbeen the critical unanswered question for thesector’s long-term growth. In recent months,the company has been in hiring mode andexpanding its technology and manufacturinginfrastructure for distribution in Singaporeand to prepare for eventual entry into the USmarket.Eat Just co-founder and CEO Josh Tetrickhopes to get regulatory approval for GoodMeat’s main product, Good Chicken in the USmarket by the end of 2021. It plans to scaleproduction with multimillion-dollar investmentsin US and Singapore facilities, while evaluatingpartnerships and acquisition opportunitieswithin the alternative protein sector.Tetrick said, “Eat without killing animals willreplace conventional meat at some point in ourlifetimes. The faster we make that happen, thehealthier our planet will be.”SINGAPOREPLANT-BASED PROTEINChickP to expand in APAC with newoffice in SingaporeChickP Protein, Ltd. is expanding into AsiaPacific with the launch of a new office inSingapore. The strategic move is in responseto the rapidly growing demand for plant-basedproducts in the region, with Singapore beingthe main centre of development for this newsegment.The new subsidiary will bring the start-upcloser to its Asian customers, and it has alsoappointed Moy Teo as the company’s BusinessDevelopment Director for Asia. With 20 yearshands-on experience in the food ingredientspace within the APAC region, Moy joins theChickP team to lead its development in Asiawith its patented and highly functional chickpeaisolate that boasts a 90% protein content. Thismove follows the acquisition of her distributionbusiness by a group in the Netherlands. Moysaid, “Chickpea is a well-known and highlyvenerated crop in Asia. The region makesup more than 85% of chickpea consumptionglobally. ChickP’s 90% chickpea isolate hasunique functional and organoleptic qualitiesmaking it applicable for a full spectrum of foodand beverage formulations.”ChickP experienced a significant jump indemand for its ChickP protein in the Asia Pacificregion. The new local office will include awarehouse to alleviate the logistical bottlenecksexperienced throughout the pandemic era thatslowed supplies to its APAC-based customersin 20 countries.Itay Dana, VP of Sales and BusinessDevelopment of ChickP said, “Asia is animportant market for ChickP; we already partnerwith local food companies to advance plantbasedinnovations. This move to Singaporeis part of ChickP’s global extension beyondthe joint market development agreement withSocius Ingredients, Inc. in the US. We alsosigned a contract with a distributor in SouthAfrica, with the next step in the Europeanmarket.”PLANT-BASED MEATSingCell to license ‘plant-based’technology from National Universityof SingaporeEat Beyond Global Holdings Inc. (Eat Beyond),an investment firm focused on the plant-basedand alternative food sector, recently announcedthat its portfolio company SingCell Tx Pte Ltd(SingCell) has entered into a technologydevelopment agreement with the NationalUniversity of Singapore (NUS) to evaluate andlicense its plant-based edible microcarrierstechnology.According to Karolis Rosickas, CEO ofSingCell, “The initial performance of thesemicrocarriers in terms of cell attachmentand proliferation is very promising and couldsolve the cost and scalability issues in thecultured meat industry. This technology is verycomplementary to SingCell’s existing 3D cellculture technology, and soon we will be ableto offer a more comprehensive bioprocessingscale-up solution to our clients.”SingCell operates as a contract developmentand manufacturing organisation (CDMO),offering its proprietary platform to 3rd partyalternative meat companies, which providesscalable processes for cultured meatmanufacturing. SingCell has a rapidly growingpipeline of potential projects.Eat Beyond CEO Patrick Morris said, “SingCellis focused on improving the feasibility of thecultured meat industry by focusing purely onthe cost and scalability of the technology,” saidEat Beyond CEO Patrick Morris. “The companyis also located in Singapore, which is trulythe epicenter of this industry and was the firstjurisdiction globally to approve cell based meatfor consumption.”The Singapore government has placed amajor focus on innovation that will drive foodsecurity and make the nation less dependenton foreign suppliers. SingCell is well positionedto leverage these programs to develop itstechnology and manufacturing infrastructure inSingapore.PLANT-BASED MILKOatly to build 1 st production facilityin Asia in SingaporeSwedish dairy-free producer of oat milkbeverages, Oatly is setting up its firstmanufacturing facility in Asia in Singapore,through a partnership with Yeo Hiap Seng, aleading beverage firm in the region.Both partners will invest a combined US$30million to build a plant in Sembawang, in thenorthern part of Singapore, to manufacture
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