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Milk production in the traditional dairy industry puts the ecosystem and animal welfare at huge risk with its intense demand for nutrition.

Dairy farming contributes to land and water degradation, biodiversity loss, and deforestation. It also puts the very source of nutrition (the animal) through unnecessary suffering. Animals in cattle farms do not have sufficient personal space, contact with other animals and range.

This dilemma between milk being an essential dietary component of a vast majority of the global population and the ecological strain required to sustain it demanded outside-the-box thinking.

The greatest solutions in the history of mankind were born out of crisis. and necessity. The ability to adapt and innovate in times of need is sustainability demands. It is also what separates leaders that show the way forward from those that follow.

OpenGov Asia is always seeking to recognise and promote such leaders of innovation. This pursuit has led to a partnership with Singapore Management University (SMU) Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IIE), which provides support and a platform for budding innovators.

In our first article of this series OpenGov Asia had the opportunity to speak with the Chief Operating at Anzene.

Continuing our journey, OpenGov Asia took the opportunity to interact with another innovative team at SMU IIE trying to create a dent in this 716-billion-dollar dairy industry – TurtleTree Labs.

Wanting to be the first to produce clean milk using a laboratory process that bypasses the environmental degradation and simultaneously addresses animal welfare issues of industrial dairy, Fengru Lin – co-founder of the company and SMU alumna – shared her story with OpenGov.

It all started with a hobby to create cheese. Unfortunately, it was a challenge to find good quality milk in Asia, due to the climate, rampant contract dairy farming and hormones injected to cows.

In her journey for clean milk, Fengru met Max – a shrewd strategist and food-tech enthusiast – who shared her vision and passion.  The partnership led them to create a best-in-class scientific and business team and organisation – TurtleTree Labs.

Fengru Lin and Max Rye

From the very beginning TurtleTree Labs had their core values laid out clearly – scientific innovation and a sustainable pragmatism.

This clarity allowed them to create a sound go-to-market plan and to grow its team in line with these values.

Apart from having a strong business and scientific ethos, they are zealous about compliance. Their regulatory team is a crucial part of their business, both ensuring organisational adherence to as well as influencing the nutrition industry norms. They are in talks with regulatory agencies on this front.

Enlightening OpenGov about their sustainable process of producing milk in a lab, she explained the extensive process that allows them to produce milk from all mammals in the lab.

Lactocytes are derived via their proprietary process which can take cells from a number of different sources. They then culture lab derived lactocytes which are proliferated then lactated to produce the final product: milk!

Milk produced from this process has a similar composition as real milk and can be utilized for making milk products such as butter and cheese as well.

TurtleTree labs plans to take their product to market via a B2B Model. Their Chief Strategist, Max, shared that they are focused on partnering with the existing dairy and infant nutrition companies in the industry. They are offering a far more sustainable supply source for their existing dairy production lines.

Products produced using TurtleTree Labs technology can reach a wider consumer market through the well-established supply chains of these dairy corporations. Experience of industry leaders and their deep knowledge of consumer insights will help TurtleTree Labs understand which products are in higher demand and more valuable, giving them long term focus points. Their interactions, thus far, have revealed a high interest in the infant nutrition segment.

They will initially address a propitious market opportunity in Asia, then move into other promising market areas similarly driven by increasing populations seeking better nourishment.

Turtle Tree Labs has business and regulatory teams based in US and Singapore while their research and development team is primarily based in Singapore. They are currently enrolled in SMU IIE’s flagship incubation programme, Business Innovations Generator and were awarded the HSBC-SMU Sustainability & Innovation Grant. They have also received tremendous support from A*star and NUS in transforming their vision to reality.

An integral part of the company is the TurtleTree Foundation – an expression of their corporate social responsibility commitment. Set up from the inception of the company, it reflects another of their core values – to give back to society.

The foundation is working with an institute to produce snow leopard milk in their labs. Snow leopards are an endangered species. Apart from the danger posed by humans, snow leopard cubs face a threat closer home. The cubs have to be separated from their mothers because of the risk of being attacked by them. As such, an alternate source of milk is vital to their survival.

In Sumatra, the foundation is collaborating with an elephant orphanage to create elephant milk for the orphaned babies whose mothers have been captured or poached for their ivory.

TurtleTree Labs is built on the foundation and premise of caring for the society and supporting it through their business practices. Not only is it eliminating the exploitation of animals by producing milk in the lab, their technology is tackling their nutritional needs that are disrupted by human intervention.

OpenGov Asia deeply appreciates TurtleTree Labs’ sustainable innovation ethos and its concern-in-action for the environment and wishes them the best in their endeavours.

PARTNER

Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private company, Qlik offers real-time data integration and analytics solutions, powered by Qlik Cloud, to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik serves more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries.

PARTNER

CTC Global Singapore, a premier end-to-end IT solutions provider, is a fully owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and ITOCHU Corporation.

Since 1972, CTC has established itself as one of the country’s top IT solutions providers. With 50 years of experience, headed by an experienced management team and staffed by over 200 qualified IT professionals, we support organizations with integrated IT solutions expertise in Autonomous IT, Cyber Security, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure, Workplace Modernization and Professional Services.

Well-known for our strengths in system integration and consultation, CTC Global proves to be the preferred IT outsourcing destination for organizations all over Singapore today.

PARTNER

Planview has one mission: to build the future of connected work. Our solutions enable organizations to connect the business from ideas to impact, empowering companies to accelerate the achievement of what matters most. Planview’s full spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions creates an organizational focus on the strategic outcomes that matter and empowers teams to deliver their best work, no matter how they work. The comprehensive Planview platform and enterprise success model enables customers to deliver innovative, competitive products, services, and customer experiences. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with locations around the world, Planview has more than 1,300 employees supporting 4,500 customers and 2.6 million users worldwide. For more information, visit www.planview.com.

SUPPORTING ORGANISATION

SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

PARTNER

HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

PARTNER

IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

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