Singapore-based Good Startup raises $34M fund to invest in alternative protein companies – TechCrunch

Good Startup founders Gautam Godhwani and Jayesh Parekh

Good Startup, a Singapore-based venture capital firm focused on alternative protein, has closed its latest fund. Consisting of $34 million, the new fund, called Good Protein Fund I, included participation from Vinmar International founder and chairman Vijay Goradia; former head of finance and strategy for Fidelity Investments Harris Komishane; and INSEAD professor of entrepreneurship Bala Vissa. 

Founded in 2021, Good Startup wants to remove animals from the global food system. It also invests in non-food startups: for example, companies that make alternatives to leather. So far, Good Startup has invested in 21 companies out of a target of 35 startups. 

Good Startup managing partner Gautam Godhwani told TechCrunch that the firm invests primarily in early-stage companies, with an average check size of $500,000. 

Some of its current portfolio companies include Avant Meats, which produces cultivated fish products and has operations in Singapore and Hong Kong; Nowadays, a producer of plant-based “clean-label” chicken; Mooji Meats, which is focused on 3D-printing capabilities to produce plant-based and cultivated meats; Rebellyous Foods, another plant-based chicken startup that Godhwani said achieves price parity with conventional chicken through a highly-automated production process and is targeted at the food service sector; and VitroLabs, a lab-grown leather producer.