We started Alchemy Foodtech as we saw that many chronic diseases we face today are also lifestyle diseases arising mainly due to our modern diet, coupled with a sedentary and stressful lifestyle. The world is currently facing a diabetes epidemic. One-third of all diabetics reside in China alone, and Singapore is the second developed country with the highest incidence of diabetes, only behind the USA. Diabetes tends to run in the family, which is why some people are genetically predisposed to the disease, including our co-founder, Alan. Both Alan’s grandmothers and an uncle passed away due to diabetes complications, and presently, 5 out of his mother’s 6 siblings are suffering from Type 2 diabetes.
90% of people suffering from diabetes are Type 2, which is caused by insulin resistance brought about by many factors, especially a poor diet (consuming foods with high Glycemic Index (GI), high in saturated fat, high in sugar and low in fibre). Since the root cause of the problem is usually food, we wanted to incorporate food technology to everyday food staples so people can enjoy their food without changing their eating habits but have protection against diabetes. We also want to help people who are diabetic to manage their condition without giving up the food that they love.
Since our founding in 2015 with 5ibrePlus, our proprietary glycemic lowering technology designed to lower the Glycemic Index (GI) of traditionally high GI refined carbohydrates, we have had numerous achievements which are only made possible with the support from our friends, family, partners, and other stakeholders whom we have met along the way. Today, 5ibrePlus is known as Alchemy Fibre™.
Alchemy’s Milestone
9 Nov 2020
We emerged as a Top 15 finalist in the FoodBytes! By Rabobank Pitch 2020, and Top 5 in the Food Tech category and will advance to the final round of the pitch competition. We were chosen as one of the top finalists from the cohort of 45 startups that were selected from an original field of nearly 340 applications from all around the world. FoodBytes! Pitch is Rabobank’s global food and ag startup discovery program that helps entrepreneurs scale their impact through mentorship and connections to corporate leaders and investors, who in turn gain access to a vetted pipeline of startups aligned with their innovation goals. The final round will be held on 2 December 2020.
20 July 2020
The launch of Alchemy Fibre, formerly known as 5ibrePlus, kickstarted our B2C channel, starting with our first product Alchemy Fibre for Rice. Alchemy Fibre is a patented vegan-friendly powder blend made with only plant-based ingredients, such as peas, corn, tapioca, tuber roots, beans and legumes, and helps to lower the GI and up the fibre content of white carbs without altering taste or texture. It also contains prebiotics, which helps to promote gut health and immunity. When Covid-19 hit earlier in the year, restaurants were gradually forced to shut, people began to work from home and started to cook at home more frequently. We decided that it was a good opportunity to create consumer products that could be easily incorporated into carb-based food for people to prepare healthier home-cooked meals. With the rise of mindful eating and healthy home cooking, Alchemy Fibre aims to revolutionise healthy eating by making ‘bad carbs’ good. We also started our first wave of partnerships with major F&B brands which would pave way for our goal of making Alchemy Fibre available at all food establishments across Singapore. We also have our eyes set on expanding to several key overseas markets starting with China. China is largest market in Asia with around a third of the adults in the country estimated to be suffering from diabetes – followed by Thailand and Indonesia.
4 Feb 2020
We were ranked 286 out of 500 in the 2019’s FoodTech 500 List (powered by Forward Fooding) out of a total of over 1200 entries. Inspired by the Fortune 500, the list is labelled as the Fortune 500 of Agrifoodtech and is the world’s first definitive list of the global entrepreneurial talent at the intersection between food, technology, and sustainability. Broadly speaking, the ranking is determined based on three criteria: business size, digital footprint and sustainability.
31 Oct 2019
Organised by the New Entrepreneurs Foundation in 2015, the ASEAN Rice Bowl Startup Awards 2019 celebrates the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship in the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem. We were awarded the title of Best Foodtech / Agritech Startup. During the program, we were honoured to have met a dynamic community of startup enthusiasts, serial entrepreneurs, policymakers, and diverse mentors in tech innovation.
3 Oct 2019
We emerged as a Top 15 Finalist at Emerging Enterprise 2019, an award that is jointly organised by The Business Times and OCBC. It celebrates promising young businesses with annual sales turnover of up to $20 million which are outstanding in their respective fields. We had the opportunity to attend the gala dinner and award ceremony at the Raffles Hotel, and our award was presented to us by Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Education Mr Chee Hong Tat. We also received a special mention by Mr Chee during his speech.
7 Sep 2019
We were thrilled to be a part of the SPACE-F Accelerator Program, a Bangkok-based food tech incubator and accelerator program that aims to help entrepreneurs scale-up their products and connect them to potential investors with an overarching goal of bolstering the region’s food security. They were founded in 2019 through a partnership between the Thai Union, National Innovation Agency of Thailand and Mahidol University, and is the first food tech innovation program in Thailand.
6 June 2019
We gave a presentation at Ecosperity 2019: From Ambition to Action, an annual conference presented by Temasek that pushes the frontiers of sustainable growth by exploring the latest megatrends shaping our future. The Ecosperity 2019 conference explored how we can accelerate the pace of change and bring about scalable solutions that enable the transition to a low-carbon and resource-efficient future.
28 May 2019
THAIFEX-World of Food Asia trade show was held from 28 May to 1 June 2019 in Bangkok (Thailand) and is known to be the most important food and beverage fair in Asia. Our proprietary GI-lowering solution, 5ibrePlus, was the Winner of the Thaifex Innovation Awards 2019. The exposure we achieved at THAIFEX-World of Food Asia was phenomenal. The networking session provided a great platform for us to present our innovative food technology solution to combat diabetes to an international audience of media, buyers and potential investors. We hope our participation at THAIFEX-World of Food Asia will be a springboard for us to help improve food and nutrition in the region, and across the world.
21 Mar 2019
At the 2019 Agfunder Innovation Awards during the ReThink Innovation Week in San Francisco, we clinched the title of Most Innovative International Startup Pre-Series A and we are proud to have competed alongside other foodtech giants such as Impossible Foods.
23 January 2019
We were selected as one of the Top 100 global start-ups by Alibaba’s Jumpstarter 2019 event held in Hong Kong.
21 January 2019
Our foodtech laboratory Cooklab @ Alchemy at The Curie, in Singapore Science Park was officially opened with Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), Mr Chee Hong Tat. CookLab @ Alchemy is part of NUS Enterprise, and we were one of the first startups to move into NUS Enterprise’s co-working space at The Curie, a space dedicated to deep tech start-ups. In Cooklab, we have a food lab where we research and develop our ingredient blends, and a biochemistry lab where we study and analyse the digestion rates of carbohydrates and the texture of food.
12 Dec 2018
As the only winners from Singapore of Pitch@Palace ASEAN 2018 back in June, we were invited to pitch at St James’ and Buckingham Palace in London at Pitch@Palace Global. Pitch@Palace Global is the global platform for entrepreneurs to access mentors and advisers, distribution systems and supply chains, connections, and investment. It helps entrepreneurs and audiences build access and connectivity globally by helping them to access new markets and find new partners and investors, building prosperity and creating jobs.
30 Oct 2018
We were crowned as the Champion of the Start JLM Competition in Singapore (presented by the Embassy of Israel in Singapore). Start Jerusalem (JLM) is a competition which brings together innovative, founders of early-stage start-ups from around the world to explore and experience Jerusalem’s startup ecosystem. Through the program, we had the opportunity to network with prominent local tech leaders through interactive fireside chats and panels, workshops, and site visits at leading companies with the city’s start-up community.
18 Sep 2018
SLINGSHOT@SWITCH powered by Startup SG (SLINGSHOT) was a big one for us, in which we emerged as the 2018 Champion out of 1300 global startups coming from more than 80 countries. We were awarded the grand prize of S$200,000 Startup SG grant that was presented by Mr Peter Ong, the Chairman of Enterprise Singapore. We also scored an attractive prize package including landing programmes, and office space at the JTC Launchpads. The panel of judges comprised venture firms and multinational corporates, including B Capital Group, Golden Gate Ventures, Mistletoe and Vertex Ventures, Bayer, Changi Airport Group, DBS, Google, L’Oréal, P&G, PSA, and Shell.
9 July 2018
We raised S$2.5 million in our pre-Series A round, co-led by Heritas Capital Management and SEEDS Capital, the venture arm of Enterprise Singapore. The round also included co-investors Bits x Bites, a Shanghai foodtech accelerator and venture capital fund; NUS Enterprise, the National University of Singapore’s entrepreneurial arm; and other angel investors. The CEO of Heritas Capital, Chik Wai Chiew believes that our innovation, 5ibrePlus, checks the boxes of being both commercially viable and having a positive social impact, and is in line with Heritas’ value of preserving the cultural significance of food, especially Asian cuisine. This round of investment allowed us to work with partnering food manufacturers to customise solutions for them and conduct commercial trials.
6 June 2018
We were one of the top 3 winners of Pitch@Palace ASEAN 2018, an international entrepreneurship competition that was held in Marina Bay Sands (Singapore). Pitch@Palace was founded in 2014 to provide a platform to amplify and accelerate the work of entrepreneurs and gives them the opportunity to meet the stakeholders who can turn their business dreams into a reality. It was hosted by the Duke of York, Prince Andrew who is the second son of Queen Elizabeth II. As winners, we were subsequently invited to pitch at the Pitch@Palace Global at St. James Palace in the United Kingdom in December.
22 April 2015
We were awarded the TECS (now renamed as StartupSG Tech) Proof of Concept from SPRING Singapore (now known as Enterprise Singapore).
25 October 2016
We were granted the TECS (now renamed as StartupSG Tech) Proof of Value from SPRING Singapore (now known as Enterprise Singapore). The total value of both the Proof of Concept stage (in 2015) and the Proof of Value stage amounts to S$750K.
1 July 2016
Our technology was proven in several in-vivo human clinical studies, including 3 rounds of testing conducted at the Sydney University Glycemic Index Research Service (shortened to SUGiRS), which is an accredited Glycemic Index testing laboratory.
