Float Foods Closes US$1.6M Seed Round To Disrupt Alt Protein Market With Plant-Based Whole Egg Substitute

Singapore food tech Float Foods has raised SGD $2.2 million(approx US$1.6M) in an oversubscribed seed funding round that will go towards ramping up its R&D and accelerating commercialisation of its plant-based product, OnlyEg, in Singapore by 2022.

Following news of Temasek Foundation, a non-profit under the philanthropic arm of investment fund Temasek, providing a grant to Float Foods for its plant-based whole egg substitute, the company has shared they have raised a seed funding round co-led by Singapore-headquartered venture capital firms Insignia Ventures Partners and DSG Consumer Partners, who in the past have supported tech startups and lifestyle brands in Asia and India like the regional plant-based Growthwell Group in 2018.

The round also included the support of strategic investors like venture capital firms Apricot Capital, Baksh Capital and Teja Ventures, the capital fund that supports female entrepreneurs in Asia.

Compared to the existing egg alternative liquid blends that can be only used to make scrambled eggs and omelets, the company’s plant-based product OnlyEg is created using legumes and is set to be commercialised as two different components similar to egg yolk and egg white aiming to make it compatible across all dishes and cuisines.

The new round, along with the previous Temasek grant, puts the start-up at a post-money valuation of SGD$7.5 million (approx. US$5.6m) in just under a year of its inception. The new capital will help the firm invest in research and development and enable commercialisation of its flagship product.

In a press release seen by Green Queen, CEO and founding managing partner of Insignia Ventures Partners, Tan Yinglan said that the team is proud to be early partners of Float Goods. “We see in Vinita(founder of Float Foods) an eye for innovation and a strong commercialisation ability, necessary to not only spot and develop the right plant-based products for the market but also enable and speed up its distribution to end-consumers—which is what this plant-based protein innovation wave needs. We’re excited to see them take OnlyEg from the lab to market in the coming months.”

We see in Vinita(founder of Float Foods) an eye for innovation and a strong commercialisation ability, necessary to not only spot and develop the right plant-based products for the market but also enable and speed up its distribution to end-consumers

Tan Yinglan, CEO and founding managing partner of Insignia Ventures Partners

Other investors include F&B group Ebb & Flow; food solutions agriculture providers Water Tiger Investments and Agrocorp Ventures and Singapore’s first food incubator with an innovation-driven ecosystem, Innovate 360.

CEO of Float Foods, Vinita Choolani said that the response to their first funding round has been phenomenal and encouraging. “We’re proud that what we’ve built in the last year—amidst a global pandemic—can allow us the position to choose the right investors that not only believe in Float Foods’ vision of innovating and advancing a sustainable, plant-based food ecosystem in Singapore and beyond for everyone, but also pave a clearer way forward as we work towards delivering our promise of a fully functional, versatile plant-based whole egg substitute aligned with Singapore’s 30 x 30 goals.”

Investors for this round were chosen given their expertise across different phases of the food industry like R&D, manufacturing, commercialisation, supply chain capabilities, branding and marketing, and extensive networks.

We aim to pave a clearer way forward as we work towards delivering our promise of a fully functional, versatile plant-based whole egg substitute aligned with Singapore’s 30 x 30 goals

Vinita Choolani, CEO of Float Foods

At the moment, OnlyEg is in R&D and will be designed for extra nutrition and a longer shelf life making it ready for commercialisation in Singapore by 2022. Parallely, another food tech of plant-based egg shreds and patties are underway to be commercialised for the B2B sector later this year.

“The capital and insights from our unique mix of strategic partners allows us to start planning our roadmap for regional expansion after Singapore, and start making inroads to key markets such as China, India and Indonesia. Ultimately we want to be able to champion a plant-based food ecosystem that can be adapted to support food security both in Singapore and across the region,” concluded Choolani.

According to recent reports, the global plant-based meat market is set to record a 15.8% annual growth rate to reach US$35.8 billion by 2027 with the Asia Pacific market estimated to record the highest growth given that the demand in the region will grow by 200% within five years.

With the global egg market worth US$227, several companies are looking to disrupt this market with plant-based egg alternatives like the pioneer San Francisco-based Eat Just that sold the vegan equivalent of 100 million eggs, as well as Asian startups like Evo Foods based in India, French startup Les Merveilloeufs, and Singapore-based OsomeFood.

Lead image courtesy of Float Foods.