Singapore VC closes food tech fund at $34m

It follows a first close of USD 25m mid-last year. The LP base is comprised of family offices and high net worth individuals, including executives and former executives of Fidelity Investments, Symphony Asia Holdings, Vinmar International, and Kim Seng Holdings.

Good Protein Fund I aims to remove animals from the food system by investing exclusively in alternative protein companies. Deals are targeted across development stages, with a focus on connecting Asia with global ecosystems in the sector. Portfolio support spans intellectual property protection, organisation design, recruitment, and capital raising strategies.

Investments have been made in 21 companies to date; the target is 35. Standouts include Eat Just, a US vegan egg substitute brand now expanding into Asia; Singapore’s TurtleTree Labs, a company that creates milk from cells with no animal needed; and Hong Kong’s Avant Meats, which produces fish meat and whole marine proteins for the food, supplements, and beauty industries.

Good Startup is also an investor in Impossible Foods, one of the largest vegetarian meat brands in the US, which has made substantial inroads in Asia. The company has raised about USD 1.7bn in VC funding to date, including a USD 500m investment last year from Mirae Asset Global Investments, which led a round of the same size in 2020. It is said to be preparing an IPO at a valuation of USD 10bn.

Good Startup is led by managing partners Gautam Godhwani and Jayesh Parekh. Godhwani is a serial entrepreneur and partner at US-based Green Era Capital, a generalist early-stage tech investor. Parekh was a managing partner for the first two funds raised by Singapore’s Jungle Ventures and is on the investment committees of various funds of Indian impact investor Aavishkaar Capital.

“With an increasing global population and a higher level of affluence, we will see a protein shortage by 2050,” Godhwani said in a statement. “We are now in a stronger position to ramp up our stakeholder engagements and facilitate deeper ecosystem connections in strategic cross border corridors, such as those between Asia and North America.”

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Consumer
• Technology
• Cleantech
• Venture
• Fundraising
• Singapore
• Food
• Agriculture