Opportunities to expand into the Far East are to be discussed in the REAP International Café by Trendlines, an investment company that supports a portfolio of companies innovating within medical and agriculture technologies. Controlled Environment Agriculture is a particular area of interest.
The organisation has two funds: Trendlines Agrifood Fund and Bayer Trendlines Ag Innovation Fund, and its staff are based in Israel, China and Singapore.
The portfolio companies are based principally in incubators: in Israel (Trendlines Medical and Trendlines AgTech) and in Singapore (Trendlines Medical Singapore and Trendlines Agrifood Innovation Centre (AFIC)). Trendlines also has its own in-house innovation, with Trendlines Labs based in Israel, China and Singapore.
We are delighted that Trendlines will be represented in the REAP 2021 International Café and talked to Anton Wibowo, CEO of Trendlines Agrifood Innovation Centre, about his aims for the event.
Q. Are you currently looking to invest in new agri-tech? If so, do the investees need to have a presence in one of the incubators?
AW Yes we are looking to invest in agri-tech companies. They do not have to be based in our incubators but they can consider the incubator as a platform for their expansion into the different markets.
Q. What are the big challenges facing producers in Israel and Singapore? What sort of trends are you seeing? Where do you see the opportunities developing?
AW The challenge of food security is becoming more urgent, especially in relatively smaller countries like Singapore and Israel.
Any innovation that enables increasing food production with less resources (land, manpower) is in high demand. For example, Singapore is the first country that approves the sales of cell-based chicken products.
For us we see a strong trend towards the urbanisation of food production (indoor farming, recirculating aquaculture system, cell-based proteins) and there are significant opportunities in these areas.
Q What are your plans for the International Café?
AW We are pleased to be participating in the first International Cafe; plans are still evolving but we anticipate that Enterprise Singapore will be joining us. This is the government agency that promotes the development of the agri-tech ecosystem in Singapore and looks to promote more collaboration and exchange of technologies. This is a good opportunity for companies thinking of expansion to find out more about the opportunities.
Q The theme of the conference is ‘Time’ what does that mean for Trendlines?
AW Our investment philosophy is to invest in companies that solve the “near-future” challenges. Not something conventional that you can see now but yet not something that you need to wait for another five years to see the impact.
I would say that all our portfolios are addressing the challenges of “time”.
If you are interested in food security, Controlled Environment Agriculture or opportunities for expansion in the Far East there will be an opportunity to discuss this with Trendlines at REAP 2021.
REAP 2021: Changing Time(s) for Agriculture – 10th November 2021
Imagine a world where agriculture is not constrained by time. The ability to manage and manipulate time is increasing and REAP 2021 will explore the advances in technology and breakthroughs in science that is making this possible.
REAP brings together people from across the agri-tech ecosystem who believe that innovation is the engine for change. The conference bridges the gap between producer needs and technology solutions and showcases exciting agri-tech start-ups.