Singapore / Hong Kong-based new venture capital firm dedicated entirely to alternative protein investments in Asia Pacific Better Bite Ventures has launched with a US $15m fund.
The fund is backed by leading impact investors, growth stage fund managers, family offices as well as food and tech entrepreneurs from Asia, the U.S. and Europe. It invests primarily at founding, pre-seed and seed stages.
Created by Michal Klar and Simon Newstead, two Asia Pacific based operators turned impact investors, Better Bite Ventures is an alternative protein fund dedicated to Asia Pacific startups. It invests in such tech areas as:
- Plant-based, using plant ingredients to mimic the taste and texture of animal products
- Cell-based, producing real animal products by cultivating animal cells directly in a bioreactor, also known as cell cultivated or cultured
- Precision fermentation, engineering specific microorganisms to produce real animal compounds
- Biomass fermentation, using high growth, naturally occurring microorganisms as direct source of proteins
- Molecular farming, engineering plants to natively produce animal compounds, acting as a self-contained mini bioreactor
- Cellular agriculture, an umbrella term for biotech approaches to alternative protein, covering cell-based, precision fermentation and molecular farming
The launch portfolio includes emerging leaders in plant-based, cell-based, precision & biomass fermentation and molecular farming from food-tech hotspots China, Singapore, Indonesia and Australia: These include:
- Blue Canopy, a China-based developer of mass-market alt protein ingredients using biomass fermentation, co-founded by Chenfeng Lu and Juchuan Zhou
- CellX, a Chinese cultivated meat startup, co-founded by Ziliang Yang, Ning Xiang, Binlu Huang and Ran Liu
- Change Foods, founded in Australia and reinventing cheese with precision fermentation technology, co-founded by David Bucca and Prof. Junior Te’o
- Fable Food Co, transforming mushrooms into meat, co-founded by Michael Fox and Jim Fuller, headquartered in Australia
- Green Rebel Foods, South East Asia’s leading plant-based meat and dairy startup, co-founded by Helga Angelina and Max Mandias in Indonesia
- Me&, addressing a large human milk and infant nutrition market with cell-based technology, co-founded by Esha Saxena and Luis Malaver-Ortega in Australia
- Meatiply, developing cultivated poultry out of Singapore, co-founded by Elwin Tan, Jason Chua, Benjamin Chua and Prof. Teh Bin Tean
- Next Gen Foods, makers of TiNDLE plant-based chicken, co-founded by Timo Recker and Andre Menezes, based out of Singapore
- Umami Meats, addressing sustainability issues of seafood by developing cell-cultured fish, founded by Mihir Pershad in Singapore, and
- a stealth molecular farming startup
The team also includes venture partner Sonalie Figueiras, founder of Green Queen Media, an impact media platform and SourceGreenPackaging, a global marketplace for sustainable packaging.
FinSMEs
23/02/2022