The initial bunch of start-ups in Asia are finally offering investors some meagre choice of investment targets! Some of Asia’s investors, particularly Li Ka-shing’s Horizons Ventures, was one of the earliest and most active investors into the world’s earliest plant-based protein start-ups. Horizons Ventures invested in Hampton Creek (now named Just) as early as in 2011, and invested again in 2014. The year 2017 saw Singapore’s Temasek entering the alternative protein scene, and has so far, joining Horizons Ventures, invested twice in Impossible Foods, once in Perfect Day. In April 2018, Sailing Capital, a Shanghai-and Hong Kong-based private equity firm featured also as a big ticket investor into Impossible Foods.
Shanghai-based BitsxBites invested in overseas alternative protein start-ups such as Future Meat Technologies of Israel, and China-based start-ups such as Bugsolutely, in 2018.
Most recently joining the Asian investors scene is Feast, which offers early stage funding to alternative start-ups but operates with a slightly different model. Because of the founders’ nearly two decades of experience of food distribution for imported brands, it offers itself as a de-facto China team for any foreign country-originated and based start-ups it chooses to invest in. “We are their strategic investors, distributors, marketing managers, and manage their social media accounts,” said Nicolas Stoekert, one of the founders of Feast, to Ringier. “We wear many hats.”
One of the start-ups Feast has invested in and does promotion and distribution in China is the Dresden-based chocolate manufacturer of Nu-Choc, which produces chocolate with all plant-based ingredients and nothing from animals such as whey protein from cow’s milk and uses biodegradable materials in packaging.
Still more investors are setting up shop in Asia to tackle this populous market and fast-growing economy. Nick Cooney, a former founder of New Crop Capital of the U.S. (invested, along with David Yeung, in Beyond Meat in 2014), is building an investment team in Hong Kong for his Lever VC. He and his Hong Kong partners are also in talks with prospective investors in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland, who have expressed strong interest in joining the fund either as limited partners or general partners.
Foreign start-ups’ presence in Asia
While the number of start-ups in the alternative protein space can be counted on fingers easily, an increasing number of foreign brands are coming, and in style! Just, which produces man-made chicken eggs, started selling in online and offline channels in China in May, forging strategic cooperation with Alibaba and JD.com.
In late June, a start-up vegetarian restaurant named Planet Green (青苔行星) started serving Impossible Burgers of Impossible Foods of the US, selling each burger for RMB 88 (USD) in Shenzhen, China. It surprisingly finds that more than 90 per cent of patrons are non-vegetarians.
Beyond Meat and Omnipork are expected to enter the China and Thailand market soon this year, so announced Green Common of Hong Kong, which has been distributing products of dozens of international brands, including Beyond Meat, Gardein, Daiya and Califia, in Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand since 2015.
David Yeung, founder of Green Common, wrote recently in an article for plantbasednews.org that he observed first-hand the tremendous traction of some international brands: “Beyond Meat sales in this region have tripled every year since entering the market in 2015. Non-dairy brands including Oatly and Califia are natural fit and instant hit because many Asians are lactose-intolerant.”
Making quick inroads in Asia is also Oatly of Sweden. Founded in Sweden in the 1990s, Oatly uses patented enzyme technology to process fiber-rich oats into nutritional liquid food. Its product is available in over 20 countries throughout Europe and Asia. It entered China in July 2018, first selling in over 300 cafes of Pacific Cafe under China Resources, following an investment by a joint venture between China Resources and Verlinvest of Belgium. Now its products are available in 3,000 retail and catering outlets in China.
Starting April last year, Oatly supplies have often fell short of demand in China, forcing Zhang Chun, General Manager of Oatly China to request his staff to “pass along any orders exceeding 100 carton boxes (of products packed in Tetra Pak cartons) to my personal for approval so as to temper the demand”, said he in a speech in the annual Food Beverage Innovation Conference (FBIC) conference in Shanghai in April.
Also planning to arrive in China, though by no means a start-up, is France’s St Hubert, a leading player in plant-based yogurt, beverages and dessert. St Hubert’s mother company, Brassica Holdings, was acquired by Shanghai-based Fosun Group and Beijing-based Sanyuan Dairy for 625 million euros in January 2018. In late February this year St Huber established a Shanghai trading company. Fosun is a big business empire with presence in tourism, pharmaceuticals, insurance and entertainment. Beijing Sanyuan is one of China’s leading dairy manufacturers, with its own broad distribution network in Northern China.
Quorn Foods, which originated in UK in 1985, has already been operating in the Philippines since late 2015, when it was acquired by Monde Nissin of that country. Quorn Foods makes chicken patties, nuggets, and beef products from mycoprotein, a protein cellular mass-developed in England around the 1960s to address food shortage. The company saw its sales soar globally by 16 per cent between 2017-18 to 205 million British pounds. Quorn Foods Chief Executive Kevin Brennan has stated: “We are investing in these uncertain times because we see long-term growth in the sector, particularly in the US, Australia and Asia.”
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