There are six subsectors to the alternative protein industry. Plant based meats, precision fermentation and cellular meat are the main ones. Plant based “mock meat” has been around in Asia for centuries. There are relatively less technological barriers to get products out but companies will still have to overcome taste, nutrition, cost and regulatory barriers before products reach mass markets. Precision fermentation should come next. Cellular meat is farther down the path. For precision fermentation, the technology has to be adopted from the pharmaceutical industry. But costs have to come down drastically. With the public issue of Impossible Foods, many investors started getting interested in the sector. What followed was a hype cycle with companies being able to raise large amounts of capital at high valuations. Things have settled down since then. Investors must understand that the alternative protein products will need a few decades to reach a mass market. As the new food-tech industry grows, people working in the current food industry will see losses of jobs and livelihoods. But like with any new technology, new types of jobs will be create and there will be opportunities for small niche growing food using regenerative methods. And it would offer the consumer more choices.

Sections

Section 1: First 4 minutes about Hon Mun Yip and how he got involved in investing in food-tech.

Section 2: Next 18 minutes about Hon Mun Yip’s investors in each sub sector of the industry and which sub-sectors. .

Section 3: Last 18 minutes reflections on the current slowdown in investing and peering into the future

Host: Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise

New Ventures Website www.regainparadise.org

Guest : Hon Mun Yip

Investor, Food Tech and Alternative Protein

https://sg.linkedin.com/in/yiphonmun/