Subject: Future Food Asia 2022 | FFA2022 Highlights from Day 1

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7 JUNE : THE EMERGENCE OF NEW FUNDING MODELS & NEW BUSINESS MODELS


Thank you for joining us on the 1st day of Future Food Asia 2022. If you missed any of the panels or start-up pitches they will soon be available for replay on the virtual platform.


Introduction to Future Food Asia 2022: Opening Keynote

The sixth edition of FFA started with a keynote by Isabelle Decitre with the underlying theme #GroundsforOptimism. With global food security in danger due to supply chain disruptions and geopolitical instabilities, there is a dire need for technological advancements across the value chain. She highlighted the fact that "Technology is for people and should be for people"


Anastasia Volkova from Regrow made a special appearance to wrap up the keynote sharing the same optimistic sentiment that great challenges bring great opportunities.

The Big Picture: The Future of Venture Building and New Emerging Funding Models

Nick Hazell (v2food) and Geraldine Goh (ASFP) shared their experience on the future of venture building at a panel moderated by Clara Chen. Geraldine spoke about how the government and state-owned investment firm in Singapore assisted in developing new solutions with partners, and how investors can provide the edge to the startups.


"Doing innovation outside of the corporate brings many advantages such as agility and ability to attract right talents." - Geraldine Goh, Chief Revenue Officer, Clyde, Temasek

Innovation Corner

Today we’ve heard from the first three FFA finalists:

  • Whole. (Australia): They make smart processing tech that eliminates waste by producing enhanced plant-based flavours and highly-nutritious whole food ingredients.

  • GreenPod Labs (India): They are developing sustainable solutions to minimize food waste and food losses.

  • Ambrosia (Israel): They offer enzyme-based processing solutions that yield rare sugars such as allulose and tagatose.

Future of Life, Future of People: What Closing the Loop Means for Thai Wah

Next up we had a deep dive into what closing the loop means for Thai Wah. In this panel discussion that was moderated by Erin Sweeney (GROW Asia), Dr. Naruemon Srisuma (Thai Wah) and Julia Kay (Great Wrap) shared the collaborative journey between the two companies and insights on how both corporates and startups can leverage each other to advance innovation.


The session also saw Dr. Naruemon announce Yali Bio from China as the winner of the Thai Wah Award for Circular Bioeconomy. Yulin Lu, CEO of Yali Bio then joined the discussion virtually.

A New Era for Venture Funding: Startups investing in startups

Ben Matthew (Ninjacart), XinYi Lim (Pinduoduo), Antoine Huber (Ÿnsect) and Timo Recker (Next Gen Foods) kick-started the afternoon session with a conversation focused on successful startups who have decided to invest in other startups. They shared on different investment approaches they take and what they are looking for in young startups when they are investing in them.


“We believe that in creating optionality by investing in a young startup which is growing gives us the opportunity to coach them along the way. And when they get more commercial traction, we can pull them up and scale them up globally.” – Timo Recker, Chairman and Co-Founder – Next Gen Foods

Innovation Corner

In the afternoon session we presented the next three FFA finalists:

  • Wastelink (India), transforming food surplus into animal nutrition, generating economic and environmental benefits.

  • SEPPURE (Singapore), chemical-resistant nanofiltration membranes offering a sustainable solution by separating chemicals without heat.

  • Zero Cow Factory (India), reinventing the meaning of the traditional dairy/food industry by producing animal-free milk & dairy food products with the world's first A2 milk protein.

Pitch my Kid

Newest on the FFA agenda the “Pitch my Kid” session saw Jim Fader of Eden Brew pitching their innovation in a simplified way to children aged 10-15 years who had tuned in from across the world. The kids were very passionate about fermented milk and the journey of an entrepreneur. Their excitement was contagious and gave us more grounds for optimism.

Future of Life, Future of People: What Closing the Loop Means for Bühler

Dr. Ian Roberts spoke about how Bühler’s technologies strive to balance economy, humanity and nature, providing innovation for a better world. He explained how Bühler worked out partnerships with companies such as Givaudan and Cargill to provide an innovation platform that can help startups to scale.


"Collaboration is the key for advancing circular bio-economy.– Dr Ian Robert, CTO – Bühler

Exclusive: Waste-to-Value Opportunity in Asia – White Paper Presentation

In this session which saw the official launch of the white paper, on stage were our partners in the waste-to-value white paper, Barbara Guerpillon (Dole Sunshine Company), Christian Carrillo (Bühler) and Dr. Melanie Weingarten (A*STAR). The session was moderated by Vandana Dhaul( ID Capital) and broadly covered the challenges faced in converting waste to value, and the technologies and opportunities around it.

Truth Unmuted: From Carbon Farming to Carbon Trading

The last panel of the day featured Bo Bai (MetaVerse Green Exchange), Harjan Kuiper (Rabobank), moderated by Maya Hari (Terrascope), who discussed why enterprises need to embrace a net-zero mandate and mindset, what the journey in that space would look like and why there are interconnections between the net-zero carbon approach and benefits to overall climate agenda, specifically for the food and agriculture sector.

Coming up on 8th June


Truth Unmuted: Is Clean Meat Inevitable?

o   Prof Paul Wood – Monash University

o   Sébastien Pascual – Temasek

o   Sze Tan – CJ CheilJedang

o   Xiangliang Lin – Esco Aster Pte Ltd


Why Do We Need a 2nd Generation of Alternative Protein?

o   Andre Da Costa – DSM

o   Raffael Osen – A*Star

o   Kate Jarvis – ADB


Something’s brewing: Asia is rising to the precision fermentation opportunity

o   Dr Kuakoon Piyachomkwan – NSTDA

o   Dr Sunil Sukumaran – Perfect Day

o   Dr Yvonne Chow – A*Star

o   Dr Ezhil Subbian – String Bio


EXCLUSIVE: Announcing the Cargill Food for Good Award


Understanding the New Innovation Dynamics in the Middle East

o   Zada Haj – DANA Venture Builder

o   Karim Ghannam – 8F Asset Management

o   Dr Saeed Alhassan – Khalifa University


Truth Unmuted: From Food Security to the Future of Food: How 2 state-owned funds are shaping AgriFoodtech

o   Sébastien Pascual – Temasek

o   Mayank Singhal – Abu Dhabi Growth Fund (ADG)

o   Kavita Chandran – Thomson Reuters Foundation


Final four start-up pitches from the FFA Finalists:

  • Eden Brew (Australia), creating delicious animal-free, precision-fermented dairy the whole world can enjoy.

  • The PlantEat (South Korea), developing plant-based chicken and milk products using a proprietary data-driven plant-based food development system, called P.A.M.S. Our P.A.M.S can find matching ingredients for alternative foods and this in-silico system is 10,000 times more efficient in generating formulations than in-situ.

  • Eighth Day Foods (Australia), has a patented, proprietary protein production process that transforms pulses into wholefoods without the need for protein isolation or further processing.

  • ANPOLY (South Korea), transforms biomass waste into high-value and high-quality advanced material, Cellulose Nano Fiber (CNF), which can be used in the food, cosmetics, pharmaceutical, and packaging industries.

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