PRESS RELEASE
Singapore, May 9 2018
For immediate release
Future Food Asia Award Selects 2018 Finalists for the US$ 100,000 Prize
Applications grew 30% compared to last year
Future Food Asia announced that 10 start-ups have been selected as the 2018 finalists and will join the award event on May 23 in Singapore to showcase their solutions and technologies for a chance to win US$100,000. On the day of the event Enterprise Singapore will also award up to four winners S$50,000 Startup SG grants, selected in consultation with the FFAA judging panel.
With population, urbanization, land scarcity and global warming challenges continuing to loom, nurturing innovators working towards sustainable food solutions remains essential. The Future Food Asia Award returns after a highly successful inaugural year, to recognize the leading AgriTech and FoodTech start-ups that are creating solutions to address the ever present and growing challenges in the food industry.
“Future Food Asia was formed from the belief that Asia-Pacific has a major role to play in this nascent but most relevant innovation vertical, and that it delivers solid investment opportunities to forward-thinking investors,” said Isabelle Decitre, Founder and CEO of ID Capital, the lead organizer of the Future Food Asia Award, “The diversity of the finalists and their technology solutions once again showcases the vitality of the region, as well as its capacity to tackle not only region-specific challenges but global ones too.”
The event rewards the best applicants to the FFAA annual competition. It also promotes open innovation in the region with the goal to catalyze and align an ecosystem to cope with the challenges of food. The competitive application process began in the first week of February and closed on April 3, 2018. Startups from 19 different countries participated and applications grew by 30 per cent compared to 2017, demonstrating the momentum around technology innovations for the food & agriculture industry.
Future Food Asia Award has the continued support from Singapore Economic Development Board; Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM), one of the world’s largest agricultural processors and food ingredient providers; lead public research agency A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research); and enterprise development agency Enterprise Singapore. It is joined by global science-based company Royal DSM, active in nutrition science and innovation across Asia Pacific, and global agricultural commodities and food merchant Louis Dreyfus Company.
The selection of the 10 finalists was determined by the experienced and diverse jury members: Gerard Jacquin, former Director of Partnerships, Transfer and Innovation at INRA, Europe’s leading agricultural research institute; Dr. Ralph Graichen, Director of Food and Nutrition at A*STAR’s Biomedical Research Council; Victoria de la Huerga, Vice President of ADM Ventures, Archer Daniels Midland Company; and Isabelle Decitre, Founder and CEO of ID Capital.
Future Food Asia Award 2018 will be hosted on 23 May at Matrix Auditorium, Biopolis, in Singapore. Registrations are open at https://futurefoodasia.com/attend2018/
OVERVIEW OF THE FUTURE FOOD ASIA 2018 FINALISTS
Amai Proteins Ltd. (Israel)
http://www.amaiproteins.com
Amai Proteins is producing sweet proteins as sugar substitutes. The proprietary novel ingredients are healthy (zero calories, zero glycemic index), tasty, cheaper than sugar (in sweetness units), scalable, sustainable, and environmentally friendly. Amai is taking sweet proteins found along the equatorial belt and applies Computational Protein Design and Biotechnology to adapt the proteins to the mass food market.
BioPrime AgriSolutions Pvt. Ltd. (India)
http://www.bio-prime.com/
BioPrime is redefining agriculture and transforming lives through their alternative bio-organic, sustainable solutions for crop improvement, nutrition and protection, despite the growing impact of climate change and crop losses. Patented technology platforms SNIPRTM and Bio-nexusTM are the interface between chemical and biological crop protection and nutrition, precision technology and plant biology.
Bioworks Corporation (Japan)
http://bioworks.co.jp/
Bioworks Corporation has developed a natural ingredient-based bioplastic additive to produce strengthened PLA for significantly enhanced mechanical and thermal properties as well as industrial processability. Completely derived from plant biomass, Bioworks additive gives this new PLA a much wider applicability, while remaining 100% biodegradable. It thus has the potential to accelerate societies’ transition into a greener future.
BLH Aqua Technology (Korea)
http://blhat.com/
BLH Aqua Technology’s proprietary technology, Aqutonix, increases water absorption, and thus the photosynthetic efficiency of plants, reducing water and fertilizer usage while increasing yields. For farmers, this means a decrease in operating costs and an increase in profits. For the world, it is a clean and sustainable solution to food and water scarcity.
FIB-SOL Life Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (India)
http://fibsol.com/
The expansion of organic farming is handicapped by the lack of stable and consistent agricultural inputs, in particular biofertilizers. FIB-SOL has developed a patented nanofiber platform technology to provide light-weight, consistent and stable biofertilizers. The technology enables the delivery of a high payload of active ingredients in a stable form, thereby reducing the bulkiness and increasing the efficiency of biofertilizers. Along with logistics savings, it helps improve the yield and environmental footprint of farming.
Green Acres Co., Ltd (Taiwan)
https://greenacresco.weebly.com/
Green Acres aims at eliminating the usage of antibiotics in the animal farming system. Combining Traditional Chinese Medicine and a more international scientific approach, they are designing unique blends of herbs and other active ingredients to improve the immunity and overall health of livestock. Their holistic approach to animal health has already had proven results on poultry.
OneCrop Pty. Ltd. (Australia)
https://onecrop.com/
OneCrop’s solution radically increases crop yields through a unique degradable mulch film. It provides a technologically advanced yet cost-effective film that stores soil moisture, increases soil temperature, and drives vigorous early germination and plant growth, allowing commercial farmers around the world to significantly boost their productivity with no impact on the environment.
PureSpace (Korea)
http://www.purespace.io/
PureSpace’s solution applies to fresh produce all along the cold chain and increases their shelf life, thus greatly reducing post-harvest losses. It has developed a proprietary nano-catalyst technology to completely decompose ethylene gas and airborne bacteria effectively and safely. Thanks to their handy portable device, the solution can be deployed at multiple points of the supply chain.
Terragen Biotech Pty. Ltd. (Australia)
http://www.terragen.com.au/
Terragen Biotech is an Ag-Biotech company that develops biological products aimed at promoting plant and animal health. Terragen uses microorganisms as the basis of products that are designed to enhance yield and productivity, while reducing production costs, and the use of chemicals and antibiotics.
XRE (Korea)
http://www.xre.co.kr/
XRE Corporation revolutionizes the way canned beverages are consumed. Completely compatible with existing can manufacturing processes, its improved version of “Stay-On-Tab” can lids is patented and allows beverages to be easily re-closed. Reducing beverage waste, it has the potential to become the new standard of the beverage industry.
About Future Food Asia Award
Future Food Asia (FFA) is Asia Pacific’s leading platform to connect startups, investors, multinationals, government organizations, and research teams. Established in 2016, it is accelerated by the Future Food Asia Award (FFAA), which aims to showcase Asia Pacific’s top start-ups and innovators leading disruption in the Agri-Food value chain. This event is organized by ID Capital.
About ID Capital
ID Capital is a boutique VC investment and advisory firm founded by Isabelle Decitre in 2012 and headquartered in Singapore. It is specialized in the domain of AgriTech/FoodTech in the Asia-Pacific region. In 2016, it launched the Future Food Asia open innovation platform as a way to amplify its impact and address one of the most pressing challenges of our century: The Future of Food.
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