No chicken rice? Alt meat to the rescue

This week, On the Rise dives into the alternative protein landscape in Southeast Asia and analyzes Singapore’s big bet on spacetech. [Read from your browser]( On the Rise 🚀 Welcome to On the Rise! Delivered every Tuesday via email and through the Tech in Asia website, this free newsletter breaks down the biggest stories and trends in emerging tech. If you’re not a subscriber, get access by [registering here](. Written by Kul Bhushan Journalist Hello {NAME} Houston, we have a problem! Singapore’s favorite dish – chicken rice – is under threat after a recent decision from Malaysia may make it difficult to get the main ingredient. A stallholder [compared]( the potential shortage to having “no pizza in New York.” The city-state relies on its neighbor country for a third of the chicken it consumes. But Malaysia recently [limited the amount of chicken for export]( as food prices skyrocket across the world. Could alternative proteins solve this problem for Singapore and other countries that are also dependent on meat imports? Perhaps someday, but current prices may be hard to swallow for many. But Southeast Asia’s alternative-protein makers have been in the [spotlight]( over the past few years, courtesy of rising interest from investors. Funding into these startups surged fivefold between 2019 and 2022. In this week’s Big Story, my colleague Roehl maps out this burgeoning industry and its stakeholders. He discusses which kind of meatless meat gets the bigger piece of the investment pie and dives into the reasons why people consume or reject alt proteins. However, the industry faces a few challenges, like price parity with animal meat. My colleague Nikita explained these stumbling blocks in an [analysis]( we published last month. Nevertheless, there are promising signs for the industry. The increasing availability of alt meats in chain restaurants such as KFC, McDonald’s, Burger King, Starbucks, and Shakey’s is a good indicator of market demand and acceptance. Even as the alternative protein industry aims for the stars, Singapore is doubling down on its space ambitions. The island nation has earmarked US$110 million for spacetech and is also open to international collaborations. The move may very well help put Singapore and Southeast Asia as a whole on the global space map, as Nikita notes in Making Waves. -- Kul  --------------------------------------------------------------- THE BIG STORY [Plating SEA’s alt-meat makers]( Funding into Southeast Asia’s alt-protein firms grew by 5x last year. We map out the region’s players hoping more will start to chew on meatless meat.  --------------------------------------------------------------- MAKING WAVES Ground control to Major Tom: SG ready for take off Here’s what happened: - Singapore plans to invest US$110 million in spacetech. - The government says it’s open to international partnerships in the sector. - These developments also signify an opportunity for other spacetech startups in Asia. Here’s our take: In 2019, [Aliena]( a spacetech firm spun off from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU), [raised US$1.1 million]( in seed funding. Earlier this year, Aliena's [hitched a ride on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket]( as part of a rideshare program to deploy a nanosatellite fitted with the startup's fuel-efficient engine. The nanosatellite was built by another Singaporean startup, [Beenext-backed NuSpace]( whose integration with Falcon 9 happened via Berlin-based firm Exolaunch. The partnership with NuSpace marked Exolaunch's [first foray]( into Southeast Asia. Singapore is likely to see more national and international space industry partnerships soon, especially after the government announced plans to [invest US$110 million (SG$150 million)]( in the sector. Although the country has encouraged spacetech since the early 2000s with initiatives like the NTU’s satellite center, recent developments suggest growing focus on the segment. In March, Singapore became [the first Southeast Asian nation]( to sign the Artemis Accords and join a US-led pact on space exploration. The city-state has also inked [a deal with the UK]( to foster growth of spacetech. Investor interest in spactetech in Asia continues: Singapore’s [SpeQtral]( [secured US$8.3 million]( in a round led by Temasek’s investment platform for early-stage deep science firms in late 2021. Meanwhile, India-based Dhruva Space is in talks to [raise US$25 million]( in series A funding. [Pixxel]( another Indian firm, [landed US$25 million]( in March. The startup plans to get onboard SpaceX’s next rideshare mission to launch Earth-imaging imaging satellites that have 50x higher resolution than their counterparts. Venture funding in spacetech hit a new high in 2020 with US$6 billion, according to Crunchbase, and by the first half of 2021, nearly US$5.2 billion had already been pumped into the sector globally. Industry insiders believe that investors are seeing that there’s more to spacetech than [just launching rockets](. The challenges of space are plenty and so are the opportunities - it’s hard to even get [40 winks]( out there, for instance. Space also needs [cleaning up]( to clear away junk ranging from a fleck of paint to a 3-ton rocket body. For space startups in Singapore and other countries in the region, the timing couldn’t be better to seize opportunities. Currently, Singapore’s spacetech industry comprises over 50 startups. Meanwhile, India has somewhere between [55]( and [75]( registered startups. The industry is likely to see more collaborations, given the abundance of opportunities. But the stakes are also high: Morgan Stanley estimates the global space industry could see [1 trillion or more]( in revenue by 2040. Projections aside, spacetech provides many advantages, from monitoring assets across vast distances to enabling communication services and generating weather reports. But Singapore still has a lot of work to do. My colleague Tian Wen [noted in a deep dive]( that while [Astroscale]( has set up a Singapore office, none of the world’s space-waste management startups have a presence in Southeast Asia. The city-state also doesn’t have a licensing regime for space launches. If the government wants to sustain its focus on spacetech for the long run, Singapore needs to do more than just pump in money. It has to do what it has done for alternative protein: turn itself into a hub for spacetech companies in the region. After all, [Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic’s]( have already offered rides that were literally out of this world. As debatable as it seems, space tourism could be yet another avenue for Singapore to tap into in the future. – Nikita  --------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW Check out Tech in Asia’s coverage of the emerging tech scene [here](. 1️⃣ Mangkokku, a culinary startup based in Indonesia, has [bagged US$7 million]( in a series A funding round co-led by Alpha JWC Ventures. The company said that its sales have surged by 6x since it raised US$2 million in seed funding in 2020. 2️⃣ Indian cloud-kitchen startup Curefoods has [raised US$50 million]( in a series C round. The company aims to onboard 25 brands by mid-2022 after acquiring several direct-to-consumer food brands. 3️⃣ Finnish healthtech company Oura has partnered with Italian fashion house Gucci to launch [US$950 smart rings]( that can measure body metrics such as temperature, sleep habits, activity levels, and heartbeat. 4️⃣ Cuemath, an India-based edtech startup, has [raised US$57 million]( in a funding round led by Alpha Wave Ventures. The startup plans to expand its services to 30 more countries, taking the tally to 100 by the end of the financial year. 5️⃣ Tesla co-founder Elon Musk warned that the US electric-vehicle maker [may cut 10% of its workforce]( as he has a “super bad feeling” about the economy.  --------------------------------------------------------------- FYI [How ESG investing came to a reckoning]( The acronym ESG - short for environmental, social and corporate governance - dates back to just 2004. But after reports of companies sharing misleading claims around their environmental credentials, the Financial Times explores if it makes sense for funds to bundle these three elements together.  --------------------------------------------------------------- That’s it for this edition - we hope you liked it! Do also check out previous issues of the newsletter [here](. Not your cup of tea? You can unsubscribe from this newsletter by going to your “edit profile” page and choosing that option in our preference center. See you next week! [ADVERTISE]( | [SUBSCRIBE]( | [HIRE]( | [FIND JOBS]( P.S. Don't miss out on the biggest tech news and analysis. Add newsletter@techinasia.com to your address book, contacts, or safe sender list. Or simply move us into your inbox. Too many emails? Switch to a different frequency or get new content through our [preference center]( or [unsubscribe](. 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