Eugene Wang, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer at Sophie’s BioNutrients Courtesy Singapore News Today
Sophie’s Bionutrients, a next-generation sustainable urban food production technology company headquartered in Singapore, has been named to Forbes Asia’s inaugural 100 to Watch list. Published on August 9, the list spotlights notable startups on the rise across the Asia Pacific region. The final 100 were selected from over 900 submissions from the region’s accelerators, incubators, SME (small/medium sized enterprise) advocacy organizations, universities, and venture capitalists.
The Forbes Asia chose Sophie’s for its efforts in creating alternatives to meat and milk and its goal to turn profitable within three years amid growing demand for its microalgae-based products in Europe and North America.
“At Sophie’s Bionutrients, we grow microalgae inside of bio-reactors,” said Eugene Wang, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer at Sophie’s BioNutrients. “This process can be precisely controlled to produce protein in a matter of days. We will use local food waste, and limited amounts of water to produce microalgae protein within metropolitan areas in many parts of the globe. In addition, we can generate whole-algae ingredients in a variety of food applications in plant-based meat and functional food.”
“Lists like 100 to Watch prove that solving the world’s most pressing issues and business growth are not mutually exclusive,” he said. “We are elated to be chosen by Forbes Asia and hope this demonstrates that investing in sustainability is simply good business.”
Microalgae: the superfood of the future
Sophie’s Bionutrients believes microalgae is the superfood of the future for its versatility, nutritional value, lack of allergens and impressive scalability for mass production. Using only 0.02 hectares of land and three days, according to the company, Sophie’s BioNutrients can harvest a ton of microalgae protein concentrate to be used to develop a variety of meat and seafood-free alternatives to food and beverages.
In 2019, Sophie’s Bionutrients won an SGD 1 million grant from Temasek Foundation’s The Liveability Challenge. A Foodtech 500 startup and winner of the MassChallenge 2020, Sophie’s Bionutrients will open its first urban protein production facility in Singapore in 2021.
About the Forbes Asia 100 to Watch list
The inaugural Forbes Asia 100 to Watch list spotlights notable small companies and startups on the rise across the Asia-Pacific region. When economies worldwide are struggling from the pandemic, these agile companies are on a growth path. Their inclusion on the list comes in part from addressing problems such as improving transportation in congested cities, expanding affordable connectivity in remote regions and preventing food waste.
To qualify for consideration, companies had to be headquartered in the Asia Pacific, be at least one year old, privately-owned, for-profit, and have no more than US$20 million in their latest annual revenue through August 1, 2021. Forbes Asia evaluated each submission, looking at metrics such as a positive impact on the region or industry, a track record of strong revenue growth or ability to attract funding, promising business models or markets, and a compelling story.
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