Hi everyone. Taro here.
I was recently on holiday in Bali. When I was wandering the sprawling streets, I passed by a crypto cafe. It was random—and completely empty. It made me think of how much effort is needed for crypto to gain widespread adoption. After all, cafes still need to be themed specifically around it.
Over the next few weeks, KrASIA will be running a number of in-person startup demo days across Southeast Asia. Our next event will be in the Philippines, held at Draper Startup House Manila on July 27. If you are interested in taking part, please register here. We’ll see you there.
Open Run
This week, we’re looking at foodtech startups that recently presented their ideas at Deloitte Tohmatsu’s Morning Pitch event in Singapore.
AI Palette’s platform uses machine learning to recognize trends and predict the growth for consumer and food companies. Its insights can help companies develop new products, launch relevant marketing campaigns, and understand consumer behavior in different markets.
SGProtein launched a food manufacturing plant in Singapore this year to produce alternative meat and seafood products at a large scale. It aims to help create a solid infrastructure with its facilities for startups looking to commercialize new alternative meat products.
SinFooTech released an alcoholic beverage called Sachi developed from soy after five years of development. The company wants to utilize food processing by-products that are underused to create consumer products and create sustainability within the food supply chain.
Umami Meats is developing cultivated seafood with a focus on yellowfin tuna, Japanese eel, and red snapper, which are all considered to be at risk of extinction but still face high consumer demand.
Nothing But Net
Recent Startup Wins
- A cohort from Melbourne-based entrepreneurship program provider HEX is visiting Singapore for the first time in two years.
- Singapore startup NextBlock recently launched an app that helps people connect and interact with their neighbors.
- Populix, an Indonesian startup that runs a consumer insights platform, closed a USD 7.7 million Series A round led by Intudo Ventures and Acrew Capital.
- Cloud solutions provider Exabytes announced a new partnership with Google Cloud with new bundle offerings to help SMEs digitize their business.
Pick & Roll
Interesting Drops From the Week
- Spenmo’s new CRO Kevin Fitzgerald shared his thoughts on moving on from Xero and the opportunities for the bill payments platform developer.
- Another one bites the dust as crypto lender Voyager filed for bankruptcy, another domino falling after the collapse of Terra. [via Yahoo]
- Janio’s Nathaniel Yim and Senthil Kumar spoke with KrASIA about their company’s uniqueness, challenges, and growth journey within the logistics industry.
- BNPL startup Klarna has reportedly slashed its valuation from USD 46.1 billion to USD 6 billion in its recent attempt to raise fresh funds. The downward spiral of BNPL startups continues globally. [via Reuters]
If you are a startup that is raising funds, or have an interesting story or lead for us to feature in this newsletter, please fill out this form.