Lever Foundation’s LF Progress Fund has lately invested in Malaysian foodtech startup Nanka.
The undisclosed funding in Nanka, a plant-based meat model with merchandise based mostly on jackfruit and plant protein, marks LF Progress Fund’s first funding in a Malaysian agency.
Based mostly within the US, Lever Basis is an energetic investor within the various protein class. It goals to create a extra humane and sustainable protein provide chain in Asia, believing that altering East Asia’s protein provide chain is crucial to its mission.
To take action, it offers crucial early assist to promising current startups comparable to Nanka.
“Public curiosity in plant-based meat is rising shortly in Malaysia, with extra shoppers selecting plant-based merchandise to enhance their well being or shield the setting and animal welfare,” mentioned Vilosha Sivaraman, Sustainability Program Supervisor for Lever Basis in Malaysia.
Pushing meat-free choices in Malaysia
Nanka was based by F&B veteran Syafik Jaafar and meals technologist Amirah Mohd Noh.
This husband-and-wife duo told Vulcan Post in 2021 that their intention with the model was to encourage fellow Malaysians to eat more healthy diets, making their goal market meat eaters.
Its merchandise are fabricated from jackfruit, which is native to Malaysia and grows all yr spherical. Past its resistance to illnesses and excessive temperatures, the fruit can be identified so as to add a fibrous meat-like texture to plant-based meat.
Nonetheless, not all of its merchandise are 100% meat-free, because it has two “blended” choices that blend within the jackfruit with hen and beef.
In any case, Nanka’s merchandise don’t appear to be simply obtainable on-line on the time being. Maybe the enterprise is extra centered on B2B shoppers comparable to lodges and eating places for now.
In line with Syafik, although, the fund can be spent on increasing the corporate’s manufacturing capability, R&D functionality, in addition to constructing extra on-line presence in penetrating worldwide markets.
Syafik additionally shared that Nanka is engaged on a follow-on funding by way of an fairness crowdfunding marketing campaign utilizing the LEET Capital platform, which can assist construct a much bigger investor-consumer base.
In the long run, the startup hopes to work with extra meals corporations to scale back the utilization of animal meat of their merchandise and as a substitute introduce extra plant-based merchandise.
With this in thoughts, it looks like it’s within the books for Nanka to be ramping up the size of its enterprise down the highway, making the jackfruit patties extra accessible to the general public.
Featured Picture Credit score: Nanka
