GLOCALINK Singapore – Celebrates it’s 2nd anniversary with the ASEAN InsecTECH Forum

On 31st August 2021 GLOCALINK Singapore, celebrated its second anniversary by hosting the ASEAN InsecTECH forum. The event was supported by Leave a Nest, Singapore. The theme of the event was “Insect TECH as solutions for deep issues in ASEAN”. The event was held online on zoom. 

Through this forum, GLOCALINK Singapore wanted to take a first step to educate and create awareness among the public, not only here in Singapore but across Southeast Asia (SEA) and Japan, about the current status of the insect startup ecosystem, the advancement in technologies and challenges they face. The hope that as we move into the future there is better mainstream acceptance and support towards what insects can offer to us, rather than ignorance. In addition, through the event, the hope was to call for additional support from the audience (investors, VCs, Japanese Banks & Corporates) to help insect startups in the region grow. GLOCALINK, is also seeking corporate partners to collaborate with food and agri tech startups in Southeast Asia.

Program Overview

Dr. Ravi Ramanujam, delivered the opening remarks, where he covered the background, vision of GLOCALINK Singapore, its relationship with Kobashi Industries Co., Ltd, Euglena Co., Ltd & Leave a Nest, Singapore. In addition to covering the investment themes of the fund and giving an overview of the portfolio startups, he also spoke about the reason behind the idea of hosting the InsecTECH forum now. 

The opening remarks were followed by a keynote lecture by Dr. Kengo Suzuki (Co-founder & Executive officer & head of R&D, euglena Co., Ltd). The topic of Dr. Suzuki’s presentation  was “What to expect from Insectech Now?”. In his presentation he shared with the audience his latest research finding, which included using silkworms as protein production factories, about the protein crisis and how to possibly overcome it by making crickets more tasty & functional  (DHA & Astaxanthin) for human consumption. He concluded his presentation by sharing a few tips to the participating startups about how to make the insects as a business model more productive.

The keynote presentation was followed by very interesting presentations from  5 special insect startups from 5 countries (Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Cambodia)  across SEA. In their presentations they spoke about the current challenges they are facing, the technologies they have developed to overcome these issues, their products and how they are working with the community and farmers to bring insects to the mainstream.

The event came to an end with a panel session who broadly discussed “Insect protein as a substitute to traditional protein sources in the food industry: Challenges ahead”. The session was moderated by Dr. Kihiko Tokue (Leave a Nest, Singapore) and the Panelists were Mr. Yang En Tan (Slice/ Audacity) & Mr. Anton Wibowo (Trendlines Agrifood Innovation Centre). The session started with a short self-introduction of themselves followed by questions covered, Why insects now? Does the food culture need to be reinvented? What will be the role of SEA in Insect tech? What to expect, the current trends and a focus on current challenges curtailing growth of the insect ecosystem (for e.g., regulatory, public perception & mindset & challenges towards mainstream acceptance). Why Europe may be a better market for insect based products compared to SEA? and possible solutions to overcome current challenges.

More exciting events coming your way, to stay tuned and please visit our website for more details.

To learn more about the featured Insect tech startups visit our website

To learn more about Glocalink Singapore, please visit our website Glocalink Singapore

To learn more about Leave a Nest Singapore, please visit the website Leave a Nest