AgFunderNews
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GOOD Meat secured world-first regulatory approval in Singapore for its cultivated chicken back in 2020. We took it for a test drive.
Jack Ellis
- Senior Associate / Lead Analyst, Food and Agriculture, Cleantech Group
Singapore, Vancouver
As seen in:
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Business, technology, startups, brand, investment, venture capital, patents, intellectual property, trade, health, Asia-Pacific, agritech, agtech, foodtech, logistics, blockchain, law
Jack Ellis’s Journalist Portfolio
View as a gridEXCLUSIVE: Moa nets $44m Series B funding to launch the next generation of herbicides
AgFunderNews
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Moa Technology wants to "replenish the toolbox" available to farmers in the face of rising herbicide resistance, says CEO Virginia Corless.
Food inflation 101: What agrifoodtech players need to know about the coming crisis
AgFunderNews
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Food inflation, driven by the war in Ukraine, could lead to "apocalyptic" scenes and "tip tens of millions... into malnutrition, mass hunger, and famine."
Impossible Foods' new CEO starts today. He has some big decisions to make about its future
AgFunderNews
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Peter McGuinness is taking the reins from Patrick Brown at Impossible Foods. It's an opportunity for the company to chart a different course.
If you want to know why Beyond Meat released plant-based jerky, look at its FY 2021 results
AgFunderNews
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Jerky might seem a strange choice, but aligns with Beyond Meat's mission to increase its retail sales in 2022 - and furthers its partnership with Pepsico.
Putin's invasion of Ukraine won't just disrupt food supplies - but food technologies, too
AgFunderNews
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With so much of the world's food and fertilizer coming from Ukraine and Russia, we're facing yet another global food crisis.
Jay-Z's startup fund is quietly investing in Southeast Asia
Tech in Asia
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He's got 99 problems, but investing in Southeast Asian tech ain't one. Or it just became his hundredth problem, depending on how you look at it. In recent months, a fund linked to US hip hop megastar Jay-Z has become an increasingly active investor in regional startups.
Here's why Asia's auto giants want a piece of the ride-hailing pie
Tech in Asia
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When Toyota joined as co-lead in Grab's series H funding round in June 2018, it was said to be the largest-ever investment by an automotive manufacturer in the ride-hailing industry. The Japanese carmaker's US$1 billion capital injection was a follow-on to an earlier strategic investment in Grab, which was in the midst of raising US$2.5 billion from SoftBank and Didi Chuxing.
M17's ill-fated IPO: CEO reveals all
Tech in Asia
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Year-on-year revenue growth of over 10x. Selling costs as a share of revenue halved and operating losses quartered in the span of 12 months. Throw in the biggest market share for livestreaming in Asia's developed economies, and things were looking pretty rosy for social media startup M17 Entertainment in the run-up to its New York IPO in June last year.
Should Grab spin off its financial services?
Tech in Asia
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Grab has spoken to banks and insurance companies about taking stakes in its payments and financial services businesses, a source close to the matter confirmed to Tech in Asia. The Financial Times reported last week that Grab is considering a spin-off Grab Financial, which includes its digital wallet GrabPay as well as the company's insurance and lending services.
Warung Pintar raised over $35m in a year to transform Asia's mom-and-pop stores
Tech in Asia
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In Indonesia and Malaysia, it's called a warung. In the Philippines, it's a sari-sari store. Across much of India, it's called a kirana store. Whatever they're called locally, you'll find them throughout Asia: small, typically family-run kiosks located by the roadside or on the sidewalk.
Why Grab is targeting travel and tourism as its next vertical
Tech in Asia
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Grab needs growth. Its current series H funding round is now expected to balloon to US$6.5 billion, indicating that investors continue to show confidence in the company. With every new investor dollar that comes in, there's renewed expectation for Grab to become Southeast Asia's undisputed everyday app.
Has Toyota turned Tesla with its latest 'open' patent pledge? Not quite.
Medium
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A closer look at Toyota's royalty-free offer on around 23,740 of its patents shows it's a somewhat different proposition. Notably, this isn't the Japanese auto giant's first time using such a strategy. In January 2015, it announced it would make 5,680 patents related to fuel cell drive systems available on a royalty-free basis.
Go-Jek added $3b to the Indonesian economy in 2018, study claims
Tech in Asia
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Go-Jek contributed 44.2 trillion rupiahs (US$3.1 billion) in added value to the Indonesian economy last year based on income made by drivers and merchants using its platform, according to research from the Demographic Institute of the Faculty of Economics and Business (LDFEB), Universitas Indonesia.
With Mobike leaving, Singapore's bike-sharing boom looks over. Here's what's next
Tech in Asia
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When Mobike last week confirmed its intention to quit the Singapore market, it marked the end of an era. While a number of smaller players still operate in the market, the boom days for bike-sharing in the Lion City appear to be done - and another type of two-wheeler transport may be about to take its place.
Go-Jek says 'no evidence found' after claims that fraudsters gamed CNY incentives
Tech in Asia
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Ride-hailing drivers in Singapore have complained that some among their number are gaming incentives offered by Go-Jek. However, the company said it has not found any evidence to support such claims. During last week's Lunar New Year period, Go-Jek Singapore awarded a S$508 (US$374) payout on top of earnings to the top 10 drivers who completed the most rides each day from February 4 to 7.
Almost 30% of Go-Jek, 5% of Grab e-hails in Indonesia are fraudulent, study claims
Tech in Asia
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Almost a third of e-hails made through Go-Jek's app in Indonesia may be fraudulent, while 5 percent of Grab orders in the country could also be false, a new study claims. However, Grab told Tech in Asia that it has reduced fraud rates to under one percent of total orders.
ByteDance, the $75b social media unicorn from China, is now in the market for patents
Medium
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If you're outside of China, you've probably never heard of ByteDance. But the Beijing-based startup's mobile apps are used by more than 800 million people worldwide every day. It's said to be seeking fresh investment that would value it at US$75 billion. And now, it's getting a taste for patents.
Grab may have cause to sue Go-Jek over map copying, say lawyers
Tech in Asia
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Go-Jek launched its Singapore ride-hailing app in beta last month, satisfying the city-state's craving for a ride-hailing service to take Uber's spot and compete on the level with the latter's acquirer Grab. The Indonesian company's Singapore entry was quite some time in the making, having first been announced back in May.
These Singaporeans built a scooter startup and sold it to Ford for $100m in 20 months
Tech in Asia
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How many Singaporeans does it take to launch a US bike-sharing startup, pivot it to e-scooters, and sell it to one of the world's biggest carmakers, all in the space of just 20 months? The answer is three.
JD and Go-Jek deepen their relationship to conquer Indonesia
Tech in Asia
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Ecommerce giant JD is betting big on Indonesia - both in terms of making venture investments, where it has backed local unicorns Go-Jek and Traveloka, and expanding its own brand visibility. The Chinese firm selected the island country to host the first overseas outlet of its line of tech-laden cashierless stores - named JD.id X.
The race to become Southeast Asia's super app
Tech in Asia
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Go-Jek and Grab each started out offering ride-hailing services. But both companies claim that their objective was always much more farsighted than simply helping people travel from A to B. The goal for both Grab and Go-Jek is to become the "super app" that Southeast Asians use to manage their everyday lives.
Grab's CTO on hiring decisions, the future, and the failure that embarrassed him
Tech in Asia
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Theo Vassilakis was a math researcher at university, and he was on course to become a professor. Hopefully, he'd get tenure someday, and with job security pretty much guaranteed and six of the seven Millennium Prize math problems still to be solved, that would be that. But there was something missing.
As it becomes a $53b public company, Meituan should give up on ride-hailing altogether
Tech in Asia
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Meituan-Dianping has kicked off its much anticipated IPO, with the multi-segment, on-demand services app reportedly raising US$4.2 billion from its Hong Kong float. Another US$650 million could be winging its way if underwriters decide demand is high enough to sell more shares, valuing the company at as much as US$53 billion.