The Yield Lab Asia Pacific is a venture capital firm investing in sustainable and impactful AgTech innovations.It enables sustainable and impactful innovations in agriculture to meet the nutritional and economic needs of Asia Pacific and the world with speed.

The Yield Lab Asia Pacific

We believe that a radical change to our food, agriculture, and ocean sectors is necessary to meet our climate, biodiversity, water, and human health goals. We invest $100-750k in pre-seed and seed-stage companies working to transform these sectors. Our average time to reach a yes / no decision is 15 days (but check back because we update this number live). We keep our investment process targeted so you can go back to building your company.

Ponderosa Ventures

Hatch Blue is an aquaculture accelerator supporting start-ups in the fields of aquaculture feed, health, genetics, tech and production.

Hatch Blue Ltd

Seventure Partners is a French venture capital firm targeting in Tech/Digital and Life Sciences companies. It funds innovation and participates in the entrepreneurial adventure, alongside entrepreneurs and sharing their passion. Founded in 1997, Seventure Partners is one of the European leaders in venture capital, with € 1 billion under management as of December 31, 2023. It is an active partner of innovative companies that, according to the management team, show strong growth potential and evolving in two fields of activity: Digital Technologies and Life Sciences. With more than 20 employees, including some 15 investors, Seventure Partners has a proven track record and in-depth expertise in technology, entrepreneurship, and various private equity operations. Seventure's goal is to identify and support the development of tomorrow's European leaders in order to accelerate their growth. To do this, the firm provides entrepreneurs with the expertise, networks, and know-how of its internal team of investors. The different funds/verticals on which Seventure Partners are focusing on today: - Life Sciences : Biotech, Healthcare, Nutrition - Tech/Digital : B2B SaaS, Fintech, Retailtech, Cybersecurity - Sports & Wellbeing - Blue Economy

Seventure Partners

Trendlines Group invents, discovers, invests in, and incubates innovation-based medical and agrifood technologies. Trendlines invests principally through medical and agrifood incubators in Israel and in Singapore, its in-house innovation center, Trendlines Labs, and its Funds - the Trendlines Agrifood Fund and the Bayer Trendlines Ag Innovation Fund. The company was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Misgav, Israel.

Trendlines Group

GrainCorp Ventures is the Corporate Venture Capital arm of GrainCorp, a diversified Australian agribusiness. We are committed to supporting innovative start-ups seeking to shape the future of Australian agriculture and food production. Leveraging 100+ years of delivering value and expertise to Australian growers, GrainCorp Ventures seeks to actively identify and invest in early-stage start-ups across AgTech, animal nutrition and food innovation.

GrainCorp Ventures

Seeds Capital is an investment arm of Enterprise Singapore that co-invests with independent investors in innovative startups. The firm was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Central Region, Singapore.

Seeds Capital

Farmabase is a manufacturing company which develops health products for enhancing the well-being of poultry and livestock.

Farmabase

Peptobiotics

Peptobiotics is a synbio startup that develops livestock disease prevention biotechnology for sustainable Agri productivity.  The company makes agriculture more productive, humane, and sustainable by promoting growth and protecting against pathogens using a new type of antibiotic alternative that does not cause resistance.

<div>Peptobiotics, officially registered as Vaciome Pte. Ltd., is a Singaporean agritech startup, specializing in developing recombinant antimicrobial peptides. These are designed to replace conventional antibiotics with highly efficient, safe, and scalable peptide sequences that are engineered through a patent-pending precision fermentation process. Furthermore, the company uses software, high-throughput screening, and rational design to develop peptides customized for various livestock targets and applications.</div>

Driving livestock productivity using next-generation biotechnology

Livestock Biotech

Data Vantage: Peptobiotics, SingleInterface, ceEntek, Pawprints and Toki in focus

<div>
 
 Peptobiotics, officially registered as Vaciome Pte. Ltd., is a Singaporean agritech startup, specializing in developing recombinant antimicrobial peptides. These are designed to replace conventional antibiotics with highly efficient, safe, and scalable peptide sequences that are engineered through a patent-pending precision fermentation process. Furthermore, the company uses software, high-throughput screening, and rational design to develop peptides customized for various livestock targets and applications.
 
 
 
 
 The company's key focus areas include enhancing animal health and productivity in the agriculture industry by preventing diseases and promoting growth without contributing to antimicrobial resistance.&nbsp;
 
 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 
 In 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/28364">
 April 2024
 </a>
 , Peptobiotics raised USD 6.2 million in Series A funding, led by Hatch Blue, with participation from SEEDS Capital, Seventure Partners, GrainCorp, and others. The new funding was earmarked for commercializing its recombinant antimicrobial peptides.
 
</div>

<div>
 
 Aviabiotic (formerly Chicken Probiotic) is a biotechnology company innovating in poultry health. The company specializes in creating probiotics engineered for enhanced thermostability, elimination of antibiotic resistance, and dependency on corn sugar, making them environmentally friendly. These probiotics are designed specifically for integrated poultry operations, addressing both health and efficiency in poultry production.
 
 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 
 
 Aviabiotic's latest funding was a grant received in 2020, which has facilitated the development and commercialization of its specialized probiotics.&nbsp;
 
 
 
</div>

Aviabiotic

<div>
 
 ZeaVaxx is an animal healthcare company using advanced biotechnology to improve vaccine effectiveness for animals. Its plant-derived nanoparticle adjuvant platform claims to offer advantages over aluminum-based ones that are falling short in current animal vaccine formulations due to low efficacy and compatibility issues. This platform is designed to enhance the immunogenicity of vaccines to ensure that the vaccines can provoke a stronger and more effective immune response in animals.
 
 
 
 
 ZeaVaxx flagship product, Zea-11, is a proprietary glucan-based nanoparticle derived from plants. Zea-11 claims to offer simplified extraction and chemical finalization, making it the first economically viable nanoparticle adjuvant for animal vaccines.&nbsp;
 
 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 
 
 In June 2018, the company secured USD 50,000 in pre-seed funding from the Purdue Ag-celerator.
 
 
 
</div>

ZeaVaxx

<div>
 
 Malcisbo, a spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), is a Swiss biotechnology company developing novel vaccines for animal and human health. The company focuses on glycoengineering technologies to create efficient glycoconjugate vaccines to address bacterial diseases that impact animal health, human food safety, and zoonotic diseases.
 
 
 
 
 Its primary product offerings target Campylobacter infections in humans (to reduce food poisoning from chicken meat) and Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (to reduce economic losses in the swine industry due to mortality, growth retardation, and the need for antibiotics).
 
 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 
 
 As of May 2024, the company had been awarded 10 grants totaling CHF 3.5 million (~USD 3.8 million).
 
 
 
</div>

Malcisbo

<div>
 
 eggXYt is an Israeli biotech company that specializes in ultrasound technology for eggs. The company has developed a non-invasive, pre-incubation sex detection technology for chicken embryos, named seXYt, which allows poultry farmers to separate male and female layer chicks before incubation. This process claims to prevent unnecessary incubation of over 8 billion male layer chicks annually, which are otherwise disposed of after birth due to their unsuitability for the industry. These eggs are then repurposed and used outside the food industry, leading to lower costs and reduced resource waste in hatcheries.
 
 
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 
 
 In November 2020, the company signed an R&amp;D licensing agreement with Tropic Biosciences to develop Avian influenza resistance in chickens through gene editing.
 
 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 
 
 eggXYt has received over USD 2.5 million in funding from the European Union through the Horizon 2020 SME Program for its sex detection technology and to expand its research into new areas such as disease resistance in poultry.
 
 
 
</div>

eggXYt

<div>
 
 BioRefic is a Latvian biotech company that develops biorefinery technology to produce advanced prebiotic ingredients and microbial Omega-3 fatty acids. It primarily serves the animal feed and aquaculture sectors by providing sustainable alternatives to traditional feed ingredients. Biorefic&rsquo;s products, which include xylooligosaccharide prebiotic (a gut microbiome enhancing ingredient to improve health and immunity and boost performance), are designed to enhance animal health and efficiency, thus reducing the overall environmental impact of agriculture.
 
 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 
 
 BioRefic has raised a total of EUR 250,000 in funding over two rounds, with its most recent funding coming from a non-equity assistance round supported by RootCamp. 
 
 
 
</div>

BioRefic

Companies that offer solutions that edit (gene editing) or modify (gene modification) an animal's genome in a precise and targeted manner using methods such as TALEN's, CRISPR/Cas9, recombinant retroviruses, and sperm-mediated DNA transfer. The techniques change the existing genome to improve/express desired traits in livestock. The segment also covers companies that use an AI-based platform or otherwise to offer diagnostic testing services of the animal's genome that help livestock farmers identify genetic changes or diseases present in herds.

Companies that offer next-generation vaccines based on developments in DNA technology (e.g., mRNA vaccines) and biotechnology. The segment also includes medicines developed for the prevention and treatment of livestock diseases.

Companies that use a range of genetic techniques that can alter the DNA of animals more precisely than traditional breeding techniques. Techniques such as gender selection via sexed semen, genomic selection, or even gene editing methods like CRISPR are used to breed animals precisely with superior genetic traits.

Companies that produce natural ingredients or biological additives that can be added to animal feed for purposes such as improving nutrient uptake and the gut microbiome.

Biotech solutions to grow livestock that are of better traits and sustainable

Uses AI/machine learning to facilitate their platform/biotech processes like gene editing

Offers customization of genes and traits as required by farmers

ANALYST_QUICK_TAKE

<div>
 The synthetic biology startup Peptobiotics has managed to raise USD 6.2 million in Series A funding. Hatch Blue led the funding round, along with participation from various significant entities like SEEDS Capital, Seventure Partners, GrainCorp, Farmabase, Trendlines Agrifood Fund, Ponderosa VC, and The Yield Lab Asia Pacific, among others.
 This newly gained funding will be used to commercialize their recombinant antimicrobial peptides. The ultimate aim of this is to decrease the use of antibiotics in the food supply chain.
 </div> Analyst QuickTake: 
 The livestock farming and aquaculture sectors struggle with severe <a href="https: 
//wfa.org/antibiotic-overuse-in-livestock-production-a-global-threat-to-public-health/"> overuse of antibiotics </a> , which could lead to antibiotic resistance in the long run, affecting both animals and humans. Peptobiotic peptides naturally inhibit bacteria, providing an alternative to traditional antibiotics.

Peptobiotics

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