photo credit: Good Startup
By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media
Good Startup, a Singapore-based venture capital firm aiming to remove animals from food supply chains, announced it has raised $25 million and the first close of its Good Protein Fund I.
By 2050, the dietary needs of more than 10 billion people will have to be met – and met in ways that are sustainable, reduce climate change, and mitigate environmental challenges.
Alternative protein sources have been increasingly on the radar of both consumers and investors as a path to achieving this goal. Global protein consumption is expected to climb at a CAGR of 1.7 percent, reaching 943 million tons by 2054, according to Lux Research. Over this same time period, alternative protein sources are forecast to command up to a third of the protein market as consumers push back against the environmental effects and animal welfare concerns connected with animal protein production.
Good Startup believes that as protein demand increases by an expected 70 percent, sustainable innovation must take place in the global food ecosystem, noting that animal food production contributes more toward global warming than even transportation – and is the leading cause of deforestation, species extinction, and ocean dead zones.
Furthermore, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) determined that most human diseases originate in animals and most antibiotics used in the world are administered to animals. Within this scenario, our reliance on animals for food has left humans ever more susceptible to zoonotic diseases.
“For years, food ecosystem stakeholders had to balance the need to meet food security needs while also balancing the toll that animal food production takes on our world,” said Gautam Godhwani, managing partner, Good Starutp. “Yet, the growing role of the biotechnology sector in producing alternative proteins can give us the same food we enjoy with less impact on our environment. This can only be achieved by supporting biotech food companies to scale globally, especially in markets that still depend heavily on meat.”
GoodStartup is strategically located in Singapore in the Southeast Asian market, where there is a boom in demand for alternative proteins due to health and environmental concerns.
In his recent article The Rise of Alternative Proteins published by GAI News, Adam Bergman, managing director at EcoTech Capital, said, “Singapore, [which] has an initiative called “30 by 30,” to produce 30 percent of its food supply locally by 2030. The initiative was prompted because Singapore currently imports over 90 percent of its food, making it vulnerable to export bans or the logistics issues highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The rapid emergence, growth, and consumer adoption of alternative proteins also has not been lost on investors looking to gain exposure to these global shifts in dietary relationships and consumer engagement.
Notable investors who participated in this round included Anil Thadani, the chairman of Symphony Asia Holdings Pte. Ltd.; Tan Kim Seng, the chairman of Kim Seng Holdings Pte. Ltd.; and a consortium of senior partners from one of the big three consulting firms who have participated in their individual capacity as angel investors.
“The future of the world’s food ecosystem rests on these next generation companies. In order for them to meet their sustainable food production goals, they require investors and partners that can guide them throughout their journey,” said Jayesh Parekh, managing partner, Good Startup.
To-date, Good Startup has invested in six alternative protein companies including Eat Just, Turtle Tree Labs, Avant Meats, Rebellyous Foods, Cultured Decadence, and Novel Farms.
But plans are to invest in a total of 32 companies, actively working with each in a range of operational capacities including IP protection, organizational design, scaling up, team building, and funding strategies.
Parekh commented, “Being a cross-border fund that invests in alternative protein companies globally, we are especially excited about alternative protein ecosystem’s potential in rapidly emerging markets like Southeast Asia where we currently have a rich pipeline of deals that we are actively working on and expect to make announcements soon.”
– Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She can be reached at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.