SINGAPORE: Local food tech start-up Next Gen has raised US$10mil (S$13.2mil) in its recent financing round, as it gears up to launch its alternative chicken product.
Among its investors are Temasek, the Economic Development Board’s New Ventures arm, Singapore-based tech venture capital firm K3 Ventures and Zurich-headquartered food tech venture fund Blue Horizon, Next Gen said in a statement yesterday.
This follows its earlier founder capitalisation of US$2.2mil which it launched last October.
The financing interest exceeded the firm’s target of US$7mil, said Next Gen co-founder and chief executive Timo Recker, who sees it as a strong validation of the start-ups team, technology and business model.
“Our investment success is thanks to support from all our investors, K3 Ventures in particular, which has a track record of being early backers of successful startups such as Grab and ByteDance, ” he added.
The funding will be used for the global launch of its plant-based chicken brand, expansion into additional Asian cities and continued research and development of new plant-based products.
The start-up also aims to expand to Europe and the United States in the next two years, said Next Gen co-founder and chief operating officer Andre Menezes.
“We are already laying the groundwork for the United States, including recruiting a growth director, who will build a network of distributors, restaurants, and chefs, ” Menezes added.
Its first offering, which looks to reproduce the taste and versatility of chicken thigh, was created in partnership with chefs, and is free of genetically modified organisms and cholesterol, the start-up said.
The product would be available from outlets such as burger joint Three Buns and Chinese restaurant Empress. — The Straits Times/ANN
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