Leave a Nest, FocusTech Ventures, Kobashi Industries and euglena, launches Germi8 Pte. Ltd., an agri-food focused private investment firm in Southeast Asia

Leave a Nest Co., Ltd. (Headquarter: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo; Representative: Dr. Yukihiro Maru) and FocusTech Ventures Pte. Ltd. (Headquarter: Singapore, Representative: Mr. Kelvin Ong) collaborate with Kobashi Industries Co., Ltd. (Headquarter : Okayama, Representative: Mr. Shojiro Kobashi), and euglena Co., Ltd. (Headquarter: Tokyo, Representative: Mr. Mitsuru Izumo) to establish Germi8 Pte. Ltd. in Singapore to invest in agri-food startups across Southeast Asia.

 

Since early 2018, the FoodInnovate initiative is formed by several Singapore government agencies to advance the agri-food sector and strengthen its support structure for startups. 

 

Leave a Nest Singapore Pte. Ltd. was established in 2010 as the leading deep tech innovation platform in Southeast Asia. Since 2014, the company's flagship programme, TECH PLANTER has been expanding rapidly across ASEAN with the aim to discover and nurture startups from deep science and technology. As of August 2019, a total of 568 teams have participated within its ecosystem – one of the largest in Asia – which includes 186 incorporated companies. Agri-food tech sector participants accounted for over 25% and the number is growing year on year.

 

FocusTech Ventures, a Singaporean-based private investment firm, began supporting TECH PLANTER ASEAN since 2014 and strengthened its relationship with a strategic alliance with Leave a Nest in February 2018 to jointly support the cross pollination of deep tech startups between Japan and Southeast Asian ecosystems through their strategic capital and networks.

 

Agri-food innovation solves some of the most pressing problems in our world today – climate change, sustainability of food supply and environmental issues among others. This is the primary reason why FocusTech Ventures and Leave a Nest decided to establish Germi8 in collaboration with Kobashi Industries, Japan’s top agricultural machinery manufacturer and distributor, as well as euglena, the leading light of Japanese biotechnology.

 

With the aim of new business and value creation across the agricultural value chain, Kobashi Industries has discovered a wide range of agricultural issues and opportunities in Southeast Asia, which prompted their strategic business alliance with Leave a Nest in January 2018.

euglena Co., Ltd. on the other hand, participated in the research laboratory Nest-Bio Venture Lab, established in January 2019 in collaboration with the Leave a Nest Group and the Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology, to focus on the discovery of new research seeds.
　

Moving forward, Germi8 will leverage on the complementary strengths of each company to provide agri-food startups with the right capital, expertise and connections to take root from Singapore and thrive towards other Southeast Asian markets as well as Japan. Germi8 plans to invest approximately 100 million yen in about 20 projects over the next three years.

 

<About Germi8 Pte. Ltd.>

• Company name: Germi8 Pte. Ltd.
• Location: 3 Ang Mo Kio Street 62, #05-25 Link@AMK, Singapore 569139
• Representative: Director, Mr. Kelvin Ong
• Date of establishment: 8th August, 2019
• Mission: Help Ideas Take Root and Thrive
• Business line: Agri-food startup investment in Southeast Asia
• URL:https://www.germi8.com

 

◆ About Focustech Ventures Pte. Ltd.

• Headquarter location: 3 Ang Mo Kio Street 62, #05-25 Link@AMK, Singapore 569139
• Representative: CEO, Mr. Kelvin Ong
• Business line: Private investment firm focused on seed stage startups
• URL:http://www.focustechventures.com/

 

◆ About Leave a Nest Co., Ltd.

• Headquarter location: Iidabasimiyuki Bld.5F, 1-4, Shimomiyabicho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-0822, Japan
• Representative: Founder and Group CEO, Dr. Yukihiro Maru
• Business line: Knowledge manufacturing, Education in science and technology, human resource development, research and development, startup support, new business creation, etc.
• URL: https://global.lne.st

 

◆ About Kobashi Industries Co., Ltd.

• Headquarter location : 684, Nakaune, Minami-ku, Okayama City,  701-0292 Japan
• Representative: CEO, Mr. Shojiro Kohashi
• Business line: Manufacture and sale of agricultural machinery and parts, including cultivating nails, tractor rotation, tractor substitute raking machines, and vegetable harvesting machines.
• URL:http://kobashiindustries.com/

 

◆ About euglena Co., Ltd.

• Headquarter location: G-BASE Tamachi 2nd and 3rd floor 5-29-11 Shiba Minato-ku, Tokyo, 108-0014, Japan
• Representative: CEO, Mr. Mitsuru Izumo
• Business line: R&D for euglena and other micro algae, production of food and cosmetics, biofuel technology development, technology development in environment and biotechnology
• URL: https://www.euglena.jp