Can Waste-to-X be the answer to the looming global food shortage?

In July’s ReFi Singapore meetup, we gathered to shoot the breeze about repurposed spent grains. This sector has gained popularity in recent years, with several companies in Singapore already using spent grains in various products. The sector falls within the “Waste-to-X” category of circular economy businesses, which basically treats waste as a resource, rather than a problem to be disposed of. Leveraging her background in pharmaceuticals and MedTech, Florence Leong co-founded KosmodeHealth with the aim of reusing spent grains into health food. She’s now looking for partners and investors to commercialize the intellectual property that she’s accumulated over the years. Because I know absolutely nothing about this, Henry Soediarko, who runs the Climate Impact Asia Fund at First Estate Capital Management, kindly agreed to step in to offer some insights based on his experience investing in climate startups and FoodTech. Is Waste-to-X an emerging business and investment opportunity? Yes, was the answer. But there are regulatory obstacles preventing it from taking off. Hat tip to Varden (co-founder of Moonbeam) for lending his phone to record the chat, which includes the happy sounds of beer cans being opened. Read more on Medium or follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn.