In spite of the major disruptions recently faced by agrifood industry, such hardships have nevertheless given way to
perseverance, and have shed light on the imperative need for innovative agrifoodtech solutions within the APAC region.
As part of the continued efforts to celebrate innovation in the region, Future Food Asia 2020 (FFA) is now set to take
place on 21-25 September 2020. The conference will allow all 11 finalists to present their innovation in front of investors, industry leaders and
domain experts, and one them will be awarded the US$ 100,000 Future Food Asia Award. The 11 finalist startups are:
AgNext (India), Agrisea (United States), Aqua Development (South Korea), Crowde (Indonesia), Flurosat (Australia), Fyto
Foods (Singapore), Marine Innovation (South Korea), ProAgni (Australia), Soos (Israel), Tartansense (India) and
TerraQuanta (China).
This year’s Future Food Asia Award jury for the selection of the finalists and winner consists of Gérard Jacquin, former
Director of Partnerships, Transfer and Innovation at INRA, Europe’s leading agricultural research institute; Dr. Ralph
Graichen, Senior Director of Food & Consumer Cluster at Agency for Science, Technology and Research’s (A*STAR) Biomedical Research Council; Peter Huang,
President of Greater China, Corteva Agriscience; and Isabelle Decitre, Founder and CEO of ID Capital.
The deadline for this year’s start-up application was extended in acknowledgement of many start-ups who voiced their
desire to take part in the competition despite operational disruptions resulting from COVID-19. In total, this year saw
a 45% rise in total applicants, with India, China, Australia, South Korea and Singapore being the top 5 contributors.
Alongside the US$ 100,000 grand prize, Future Food Asia 2020 will further empower innovative solutions in the region by
featuring two additional awards presented by this year’s partners. Bühler and Givaudan’s Plant Protein Award will
provide one plant protein start-up from the APAC region access to their recently announced joint innovation centre in
Singapore along with technological support. Corteva Agriscience’s Food Resilience Award will support market expansion
trials to a start-up that empowers workers along the food supply chain and achieves food security through technological
disruption.
Future Food Asia’s fourth edition will return this September with a brand-new format in line with the platform’s motto
of continuous innovation. This year’s ‘collective edition’ is the product of FFA’s continued efforts to encourage
collaborations, and will provide a platform for conversations to take place simultaneously in multiple locations. There
will be various satellite locations where local groups will convene to amplify discussions across multiple cities around
the world. Over the course of 5 days, attendees will be provided with virtual networking opportunities and be able to
visit exhibitors’ virtual booths. Registrations for the event is now open at: https://futurefoodasia.com/ffa2020/
“The current state of our world has cast light on the prominent role of agriculture and food innovation, and stakes in
the Asia-Pacific are higher than ever. With this first Collective Edition of Future Food Asia, we are glad to broaden
the reach of regional Agripreneurs and influence an even wider community of stakeholders,” said Isabelle Decitre, CEO
and Founder of ID Capital.
Future Food Asia 2020 has been made possible by continued support from our partners: Agency for Science, Technology and
Research (A*STAR), Singapore’s lead public research agency, Corteva AgriscienceTM, a global pure-play agriculture company that provides farmers around the world with the most complete portfolio in the
industry, Bühler Group, the leading global technology supplier to the food processing and advanced material manufacturing industry, Givaudan, the leading global flavours company, Dole Asia Holdings Pte Ltd., one of the world’s largest producers and marketers of high-quality packaged and fresh fruit, ADB Ventures, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) program supporting entrepreneurs to scale technology companies for sustainable impact
in Asia and the Pacific, and The Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), the lead government agency responsible for strategies that enhance Singapore’s position as a global centre for
business, innovation and talent.Overview of the Future Food Asia 2020 Finalists
AgNext (India) | https://agnext.com/
AgNext, provides a technology platform (“Qualix”) for rapid commodity assessment solutions across procurement, trade,
production and consumption of food and agriculture value chains. Using state of art technologies, we have created the
right singular platform, through which quality for multiple commodities could be assessed in a minute, enabling
agribusinesses to leapfrog their procurement and operations processes, optimise costs, provide traceability, sharpen and
smoothen blockchains and most importantly produce excellent products of highest quality.
Agrisea (United States) | https://www.agrisea.co.uk/
Agrisea was built to solve world hunger by evolving sustainable food systems through ocean agriculture. We have
developed a way to grow crops in high salt conditions such as salt soils or coastal ocean waters. We are Agrisea, the
Ocean Agriculture company.
Aqua Development (South Korea) | https://www.aqua-development.com/
Aqua Development (AD) leveraged decades of research in aquaculture and marine biology to develop and successfully
implement and test its nature inspired aquaculture system KAMI SYS, which achieves 10 times higher productivity, ZERO
antibiotics and chemicals, ZERO water exchange, very competitive production costs and modular system fit for urban
farming.
Crowde (Indonesia) | https://www.crowde.co/
Crowde is an agriculture-focused fintech startup that empowers farmers across Indonesia with technology and capital by
creating a farmer-friendly financing ecosystem that puts in touch investors with farmers that are looking for capital to
grow business, create employment, and support local communities.
Flurosat (Australia) | https://flurosat.com/
FluroSat is a full crop cycle analytics provider that delivers proactive reports and alerts on crop performance, stress,
nutrient requirements, and sustainable management practices to crop advisors and agronomists in 14 countries. Its
analytics engine, FluroSenseTM monitors over 7 million acres of arable land supporting leading agribusinesses in
delivering precision agriculture programs and decision support to their growers.Fyto Foods (Singapore)
Fyto Foods’ plant-based meats resemble uncut real meats and when sliced or diced, would look, cook and taste like real
meats with real nutrition! Cooks have unprecedented freedom to cook our meats with hotpot, stews, stir-fry, frying and
grilling, allowing for Asian-style cooking and a wide range of international cuisines.
Marine Innovation (South Korea) | https://www.marineinv.com/
With the right idea for people and nature, what about changing our ways of lives and introducing seaweed-based products
into the environment? We go green and replace the plastics with our innovative technology. We’re an environmental
initiative to go green. Seaweed-based products will be the answer to the plastic crisis!
ProAgni (Australia) | https://proagni.com/
ProAgni is a revenue producing Australian Ag Bioscience company. We develop and commercialise animal nutrition products
which improve farm economics and address global challenges, such as food security, antimicrobial resistance, and
emissions. We are the future of affordable, abundant & clean food.
Soos (Israel) | http://www.soos.org.il/
Every year, the egg-industry exterminates 7.5 billion male-chicks since they have no commercial use. Soos develops an
incubation platform to eliminate this practice and produce more female layers with the same resources. Our solution uses
sound waves to transform male embryos into egg-laying females, thereby increasing production capacity in commercial
hatcheries.
TartanSense (India) | http://www.tartansense.com/
TartanSense addresses the problem of weed management for cotton farmers in India through its flagship technology,
'Brijbot'. Brijbot is an AI-driven 250kg robot that semi-autonomously travels through cotton fields, sees and sprays
weedicide/herbicide with 98% precision, effectively killing weeds and substantially improving yield. With TartanSense,
cotton farmers benefit from using 75% less chemical in their fields and do not need to worry anymore about sourcing
manual labour for weed removal.
TerraQuanta (China) | https://www.terraqt.com/
TerraQuanta focuses on large-scale application of satellite remote sensing imagery and AI-based data processing
technologies. We put our emphasis on the automation of algorithm development and imagery processing, and provide
insightful data service to fields such as agriculture, forestry, as well as environment protection.About ID Capital
ID Capital is an investment company headquartered in Singapore specialized in the domain of AgriTech and FoodTech in the
Asia-Pacific region. ID Capital is a pioneer in the agrifood sector in Asia-Pacific and has contributed effort and
capital in also catalyzing the ecosystem in the region through its Future Food Asia platform launched in 2016. Its
thesis is built on the fact that in this growing vertical, Asia-Pacific is the nexus between high growth and high
stakes. ID Capital is also an Appointed Partner for start-up SG Equity for the AgriFoodTech sector.