Virdalis group
Singapore-based Virdalis has closed a US$700,000 pre-seed spherical led by Wavemaker Influence, because the biotech startup develops a feed-grade protein ingredient made out of Wolffia globosa, a tiny plant higher referred to as duckweed.
The pitch is blunt: most international locations are nonetheless shopping for a important food-system enter from a small membership of producer nations, and that focus is a vulnerability.
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The corporate goes after a promote it values at greater than US$500 billion a yr for international animal feed, with protein components alone price about US$300 billion.
However the larger declare isn’t market measurement; it’s sovereignty. Feed protein is shipped throughout oceans, priced by risky commodity markets, and uncovered to geopolitical shocks. For Southeast Asia, the place aquaculture and livestock provide chains are central to meals safety, that dependence isn’t theoretical.
Virdalis argues there hasn’t been a practical method for many international locations to provide feed protein domestically at scale with out huge farmland and the appropriate local weather. Duckweed, it says, modifications the constraints.
Why duckweed, why now?
Duckweed isn’t new to science, however Virdalis is betting it may be industrialised right into a repeatable, scalable ingredient. The plant is tiny, grows quick, and could be cultivated with out conventional arable land. Virdalis says Wolffia globosa can double biomass inside 24-48 hours and attain 40-45 per cent protein by dry weight.
That progress price issues as a result of feed producers don’t purchase novelty; they purchase quantity, consistency, and value curves. If a manufacturing system can run year-round and keep away from the land-and-water footprint of standard crops, it doubtlessly turns feed protein from an import into one thing nearer to native manufacturing.
Wavemaker Influence is leaning into that geopolitical angle as a lot because the local weather story. Quentin Vaquette, the enterprise builder’s founding accomplice, stated the attraction is that duckweed might be produced regionally in locations that at the moment don’t have any practical path to home feed-protein provide.
“What’s actually transformative is the geopolitical dimension: this can be a protein supply that any nation can produce domestically, turning feed safety from a commerce dependency right into a sovereign functionality,” Vaquette stated.
He added that duckweed-based programs may produce comparable protein with as little as 10 per cent of the emissions of standard strategies.
“Constructed by operators” — and geared toward Southeast Asia
Virdalis was based by James Aujero, beforehand an government at Philippine fintech GCash. Whereas headquartered in Singapore, the agency operates within the Philippines, positioning itself near regional aquaculture and livestock markets the place feed prices and provide shocks ripple shortly into client costs.
Aujero framed the corporate’s ambition as lowering dependence on a couple of exporting international locations fairly than changing any single crop.
“Wolffia is the primary protein supply that frees nations from that dependency — it may be produced anyplace, at velocity,” he stated.
The startup says it’s constructing proprietary cultivation and processing programs, plus a data-driven working platform — language that alerts an try and run biology like an engineered manufacturing stack, not a gradual educational programme.
What occurs subsequent
With pre-seed funding in place, Virdalis says it’s scaling pilot manufacturing, hiring technical expertise, and pursuing preliminary business agreements with feed producers throughout Southeast Asia.
For Wavemaker Influence, whose debut fund is US$60 million, the deal suits a well-known sample: again early-stage climate-tech infrastructure performs with massive industrial end-markets. For Virdalis, the arduous half begins now: proving that duckweed protein can meet feed-industry necessities on unit economics, security, consistency, and provide reliability, not simply biology.
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If it really works, the upside isn’t solely a brand new ingredient. It’s a reconfiguration of the place feed protein could be produced, and who will get to regulate it.
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