Southeast Asia’s foodtech story was supposed to be about disruption: lab-grown shrimp on every plate, groceries at your door in 15 minutes, ghost kitchens replacing the corner restaurant. The reality has been humbler, and arguably more interesting. The 2022 correction thinned the herd, the eFishery scandal and TaniHub’s collapse left scars, and many of the moonshots quietly became suppliers to the very incumbents they once vowed to topple.
Yet the money has not disappeared; it has simply grown pickier. Amazon is backing quick commerce in Jakarta, Novonesis is betting on Singapore-born precision fermentation, and app-first coffee chains have raised like tech startups.
Also Read: Why Southeast Asian agritech must build for acquisitions, not IPOs
This list profiles 27 foodtech startups worth watching across four clusters: alternative proteins, agri-food supply chains, online grocery, and restaurant tech and F&B brands. Some are scaling, some are surviving, and a few come with caveats. All of them tell us where the region’s appetite is heading.
Alternative proteins and food science
Singapore’s early regulatory openness to novel foods made it the region’s alt-protein capital. The sector’s mood has shifted from moonshot to margin: the survivors are increasingly selling ingredients and tools to big food companies rather than building consumer brands of their own.
1. Umami Bioworks (Singapore)
Umami Bioworks builds the cell lines and production platform behind cultivated seafood, and in 2024 it absorbed Shiok Meats, Singapore’s first cultivated-shrimp startup.
That deal mattered less for its size than for what it signalled: in cultivated meat, consolidation has replaced mega-rounds as the default exit. Umami’s bet is that it can be the picks-and-shovels supplier to an industry that has yet to prove consumers will pay a premium for lab-grown fish.
Founded: 2020
Founders: Mihir Pershad
Key backers: Maruha Nichiro, Better Bite Ventures, Hatch Blue, Aqua-Spark, CULT Food Science, Plug and Play
2. Allozymes (Singapore)
Allozymes uses microfluidics to screen and engineer enzymes far faster than conventional lab methods, which matters to anyone trying to make flavours, sweeteners or natural ingredients by fermentation at a sensible cost. Its US$15 million Series A in 2024, led by Seventure Partners and Temasek-backed Xora Innovation, was one of the larger food-science rounds in the region that year. It is a deep-tech business that happens to serve food, not the other way round.
Founded: 2019
Founders: Peyman Salehian, Akbar Vahidi
Key backers: Seventure Partners, Xora Innovation (Temasek), SOSV, Entrepreneur First, NUS Technology Holdings
3. Prefer (Singapore)
Prefer ferments surplus bread, soy pulp and spent grain into a coffee substitute that early reviewers have found surprisingly close to the real thing. The pitch is timely: climate stress and commodity spikes have made arabica and cocoa painfully expensive, and Prefer sells into cafés and food manufacturers looking for a cheaper hedge. Whether ‘bean-free’ becomes a category or remains a curiosity depends on how long bean prices stay high.
Founded: 2022
Founders: Jake Berber, Ding Jie Tan
Key backers: At One Ventures, Forge Ventures, 500 Global, Better Bite Ventures, SEEDS Capital, Entrepreneur First
4. ProfilePrint (Singapore)
ProfilePrint scans a sample of coffee, cocoa or another commodity and uses AI to predict its quality grade in seconds, replacing a slow, subjective process run by human cuppers and graders. Its cap table reads like a who’s who of agri-commodity trading, which is both its strongest validation and its biggest dependency. Few startups in this list have customers this large; fewer still have customers who are also shareholders.
Founded: 2018
Founders: Alan Lai, Rehan Amarasuriya
Key backers: Louis Dreyfus Company, ofi (Olam), Sucafina, Cargill, Greenwillow Capital, SEEDS Capital
5. Green Rebel (Indonesia)
Green Rebel makes whole-cut plant-based meat designed for rendang, satay and other Asian dishes rather than for burgers, and it has leaned heavily on food-service partnerships with chains to get onto plates. The backing of South Korean food conglomerate CJ Group gives it a strategic ally few regional peers have. Its challenge is the one facing every plant-based brand: getting price-sensitive Indonesian diners to pay more for less meat.
Also Read: TaniHub, prison and grace: Cynthia Wihardja’s post gives a human face to VC risk
Founded: 2020
Founders: Helga Angelina Tjahjadi, Max Mandias
Key backers: Unovis, AgFunder, Teja Ventures, Better Bite Ventures, CJ Group
6. ImpacFat (Singapore)
ImpacFat grows fish fat cells rich in omega-3s, a narrower and arguably smarter target than cultivated fillets: fat is what gives food much of its flavour and mouthfeel, and it can be blended into plant-based products or sold to cosmetics makers. Strategic money from Japanese packaging giant Toyo Seikan suggests industrial buyers see a use for it. It remains early-stage, and regulatory approval timelines will dictate its pace.
Founded: 2019
Founders: Mandy Hon, Shigeki Sugii
Key backers: Toyo Seikan Group, 144 Ventures, Lin Xiangliang (Esco Aster CEO)
Agri-food supply chain and B2B procurement
The unglamorous middle of the food chain, where produce, fish and chicken move from farms to kitchens, has drawn some of the region’s largest foodtech cheques and produced its sharpest reversals. The survivors tend to be the ones that stayed close to paying business customers and away from consumer subsidies.
7. EdenFarm (Indonesia)
EdenFarm supplies fresh produce to restaurants, hotels and wet-market traders, sourcing directly from farmers and cutting out layers of middlemen. It is a margin game played in a perishable category, and the startup has raised about US$19 million to play it. TaniHub’s collapse showed how badly this model goes when it overreaches into consumer delivery and lending; EdenFarm’s discipline in staying B2B is the reason it is on this list.
Founded: 2017
Founders: David Setyadi Gunawan, Ramavito Mountaino, Febrianto Gamal
Key backers: Telkomsel Mitra Inovasi, AC Ventures, AppWorks, Global Founders Capital, Y Combinator, OCBC Ventures
8. Kamereo (Vietnam)
Kamereo is Vietnam’s answer to restaurant procurement: an online ordering platform that supplies F&B outlets and retailers in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi with produce, meat and dry goods. Its Japanese founders have assembled a cap table heavy with Japanese corporates and megabanks, plus Thai agri-food giant CPF. In a country where food-service supply remains overwhelmingly informal, Kamereo is one of the few venture-backed players trying to formalise it.
Founded: 2018
Founders: Taku Tanaka, Hiroshi Tokaku
Key backers: Sumitomo Corporation, SMBC Venture Capital, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, CPF Group, Quest Ventures, Genesia Ventures
9. Freshket (Thailand)
Freshket supplies Thai restaurants with ingredients through an online ordering platform, and it has been unusually successful at attracting strategic Thai money: energy conglomerate PTT Oil and Retail led its Series B, and Thai President Foods, the maker of Mama noodles, is also a backer. For a B2B food platform, corporate shareholders who also run thousands of outlets are worth more than a marquee VC logo.
Also Read: Why Indonesia’s agritech winners will be phygital, not purely digital
Founded: 2017
Founders: Ponglada Paniangwet, Tuangploi Chiwalaksanangkoon
Key backers: PTT Oil and Retail, Thai President Foods, Kliff Capital, Openspace Ventures, 500 TukTuks
10. Aruna (Indonesia)
Aruna connects small-scale fishers across the archipelago with domestic and export buyers, handling collection, quality checks and cold-chain logistics in between. Its Series A, extended to US$65 million, was the largest of its kind in Indonesian agri-maritime tech. The eFishery scandal in late 2024 cast a long shadow over Indonesian aquatech, and Aruna has been more muted since its 2022 highs, but it remains operational and one of the sector’s few scaled players.
Founded: 2016
Founders: Farid Naufal Aslam, Indraka Fadhlillah, Utari Octavianty
Key backers: Vertex Ventures, Prosus Ventures, East Ventures, AC Ventures, MDI Ventures, SIG
11. TreeDots (Singapore)
TreeDots sells surplus, ‘ugly’ and near-expiry food that would otherwise be dumped, mostly to F&B businesses, and runs the cold-chain logistics to move it. It is that rare food-waste startup with a business model rather than a mission statement: buy cheap, sell at a discount, keep the spread. It raised an US$11 million Series A in 2021, and its survival through the downturn says more than the round did.
Founded: 2017
Founders: Tylor Jong, Lau Jia Cai, Nicholas Lim
Key backers: Amasia, East Ventures, ACTIVE Fund (Ayala), SEEDS Capital
12. Chickin (Indonesia)
Chickin gives Indonesian broiler farmers IoT sensors to monitor temperature, humidity and feed in their coops, then buys and distributes the chickens they raise. Chicken is Indonesia’s most-consumed animal protein, and the gap between well-run and badly run farms is measured in dead birds and wasted feed. Chickin’s pitch is that data plus a guaranteed buyer can close that gap.
Founded: 2020
Founders: Tubagus Syailendra, Ashab Alkahfi, Ahmad Syaifullah
Key backers: East Ventures, 500 Global
13. JALA (Indonesia)
JALA started with a water-quality monitoring device for shrimp ponds and has grown into a full-stack aquaculture platform offering farm-management software, inputs and help selling harvests. Indonesia is one of the world’s biggest shrimp exporters, yet disease and poor water quality routinely wipe out ponds. JALA’s impact-heavy investor base, including Mirova and the Meloy Fund, reflects its smallholder focus.
Founded: 2017
Founders: Aryo Wiryawan, Liris Maduningtyas
Key backers: Intudo Ventures, Sinar Mas Digital Ventures, Mirova, Meloy Fund, Real Tech
14. Food Market Hub (Malaysia)
Food Market Hub sells procurement and inventory software to restaurants, helping them track what they order, what they waste and what their suppliers charge. It is a SaaS business in a sector where most kitchens still run on WhatsApp and paper invoices, which is both the opportunity and the problem. It has raised money to expand from Malaysia into Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
Founded: 2017
Founders: Anthony See, Shayna Teh
Key backers: Go-Ventures, SIG, 500 Startups
Online grocery and fresh-food commerce
This is the cluster that took the 2022 correction hardest, and it shows: of the seven grocery names on our long list, four make the cut, and one of those with a caveat. Indonesia dominates, and the business models split cleanly into farm-direct e-grocers, dark-store quick commerce and agent-led social commerce.
15. Sayurbox (Indonesia)
Sayurbox sources fruit, vegetables and fresh food directly from farmers and delivers it to households and businesses in Java and Bali. Its Series C, worth Rp1.7 trillion (about US$120 million), was among the region’s biggest e-grocery rounds. Like every player in the category it has had to cut costs since, but it has outlasted rivals that raised less and spent faster.
Also Read: Why quick commerce is really about frequency, not speed
Founded: 2017
Founders: Amanda Susanti, Rama Notowidigdo, Metha Trisnawati
Key backers: Northstar, Alpha JWC Ventures, IFC, Astra Digital, Syngenta Group Ventures, Global Brain
16. Segari (Indonesia)
Segari runs a farm-to-doorstep e-grocery service across Greater Jakarta, built around next-day delivery and pre-ordered demand rather than expensive instant delivery. Having Alfamart, one of Indonesia’s largest convenience-store chains, on its cap table hints at where its long-term value may lie. Trackers put its total funding at roughly US$39.5 million across three rounds.
Founded: 2020
Founders: Yosua Setiawan, Farand Anugerah, Farandy Ramadhana
Key backers: Go-Ventures, Beenext, AC Ventures, Alfamart, Gunung Sewu Group, Saison Capital
17. Astro (Indonesia)
Astro is the last quick-commerce player standing in Jakarta, delivering groceries from dark stores in as little as 15 minutes. Quick commerce was supposed to be dead in Southeast Asia; then Amazon led a US$52 million round in Astro in 2025. Whether that is a vote of confidence in the model or a cheap option on the Indonesian market is the question worth asking.
Founded: 2021
Founders: Vincent Tjendra
Key backers: Amazon, Accel, Tiger Global, AC Ventures, Global Founders Capital, Lightspeed, Peak XV
18. Super (Indonesia)
Super uses community agents to aggregate grocery orders in towns and villages outside Jakarta, starting in East Java, where goods often cost more than in the capital. It has raised more than US$100 million, including a US$70 million Series C led by NEA in 2022. Super has kept a low public profile since, so treat its momentum with some caution, but the underserved-consumer thesis it pioneered remains sound.
Founded: 2018
Founders: Steven Wongsoredjo, Debeasinta Budiman, Garret Koeswandi
Key backers: NEA, SoftBank Ventures Asia, DST Global Partners, Y Combinator Continuity, B Capital
Cloud kitchens, restaurant tech and F&B brands
The app-first coffee chain is Southeast Asia’s most successful foodtech export, and VCs have treated it as a tech play. Restaurant software, meanwhile, has quietly become a better business than the restaurants themselves.
19. Hangry (Indonesia)
Hangry began as a delivery-only, multi-brand cloud kitchen and, unlike most of its peers, read the post-pandemic market correctly: it pivoted into dine-in outlets for brands such as Moon Chicken. That move from ghost kitchen to real restaurant is the main reason it is here while many cloud-kitchen operators are not. It is now as much a restaurant group as a tech company.
Founded: 2019
Founders: Abraham Viktor, Andreas Resha, Robin Tan
Key backers: Alpha JWC Ventures, Surge (Sequoia), Atlas Pacific Capital, SALT Ventures, Heyokha Brothers
20. ESB (Indonesia)
ESB sells restaurants an all-in-one stack: point of sale, self-ordering, kitchen display and back-office ERP. Its Rp420 billion (roughly US$29 million at the time) Series B was large for vertical SaaS in Indonesia. When restaurants struggle, they cut marketing before they cut the system that runs their tills, which makes ESB one of the more resilient bets in this cluster.
Founded: 2018
Founders: Gunawan Woen, Eka Prasetya, Setiadi Prawiryo Moeljadi, Dwi Prawira
Key backers: Northstar Group, Alpha JWC Ventures, BEENEXT, AC Ventures, Vulcan Capital
21. Kopi Kenangan (Indonesia)
Kopi Kenangan turned Indonesia’s grab-and-go coffee habit into a unicorn, hitting a US$1 billion valuation with a US$96 million Series C in late 2021. It is well past ’emerging’, but no list of Southeast Asian foodtech is complete without the company that proved an app-led beverage chain could raise like a tech startup. Its expansion beyond Indonesia will test whether the model travels.
Also Read: Cata raises US$5.3M to bring enterprise app tech to F&B and retail operators
Founded: 2017
Founders: Edward Tirtanata, James Prananto, Cynthia Chaerunnisa
Key backers: Tybourne Capital, Horizons Ventures, Kunlun, B Capital, Falcon Edge, Sequoia India, Verlinvest, Sofina
22. ZUS Coffee (Malaysia)
ZUS Coffee has become Malaysia’s largest coffee chain by outlet count in a few short years, and has pushed into the Philippines, where it even sponsors a volleyball team. It has reportedly weighed a listing on Bursa Malaysia. Like Kopi Kenangan, it stretches the definition of a startup, but its app-first loyalty model is the template the rest of the sector copies.
Founded: 2019
Founders: Ian Chua, Venon Tian, Terence Ho
Key backers: KV Asia Capital, KWAP, Kapal Api Group
23. Pickup Coffee (Philippines)
Pickup Coffee sells sub-P100 cups through compact grab-and-go kiosks, and has scaled across Metro Manila at speed. It attracted about US$40 million in investment within a few years of launch. Its price point is its moat and its risk: in a market where ZUS, Starbucks and local chains are all fighting for the same commuter, there is little room to raise prices.
Founded: 2022
Founders: Diego Lorenzo, Jaime González Fernández
Key backers: Go-Ventures, Venturi Partners, DSG Consumer Partners, Openspace, Kickstart Ventures, Antler
24. Tomoro Coffee (Indonesia)
Tomoro Coffee brings a Luckin-style playbook of automation, small stores and aggressive pricing to Indonesia, and has expanded to Singapore and beyond. Its founders’ China background shows in its operational intensity. It is the clearest sign that Chinese coffee-chain economics are now being exported to Southeast Asia, and that local incumbents will have to compete on cost.
Founded: 2022
Founders: Xing Wei ‘Star’ Yuan, Fish Sun
Key backers: ATM Capital
25. Flash Coffee (Indonesia)
Flash Coffee is a survivor story with an asterisk. The Rocket Internet-incubated chain extended its Series B to US$50 million, expanded across the region, then retreated, and is now headquartered in Jakarta and focused on Indonesia. It is still operating and still led by founder David Brunier. Its arc is a useful cautionary tale about how quickly regional ambition can outrun unit economics.
Founded: 2020
Founders: David Brunier, Sebastian Hannecker
Key backers: White Star Capital, Delivery Hero, Rocket Internet, Global Founders Capital
26. JIWA Group (Kopi Janji Jiwa) (Indonesia)
JIWA Group runs Kopi Janji Jiwa, one of Indonesia’s largest grab-and-go coffee brands, along with food brands such as Jiwa Toast. It grew rapidly through a franchise-heavy model and has drawn backing from Openspace. It is less of a technology company than Kopi Kenangan or Tomoro, but its scale in the mass market makes it impossible to ignore.
Founded: 2018
Founders: Billy Kurniawan
Key backers: Openspace, Capsquare Asia Partners
27. Lemonilo (Indonesia)
Lemonilo makes ‘healthier’ instant noodles and snacks without MSG or synthetic colouring, and took on Indomie on its home turf, starting online and moving into modern retail. Its US$36 million Series C made it one of the best-funded consumer food brands in Indonesia. Health-positioned FMCG is a crowded shelf, and its next test is whether it can defend share once incumbents copy the formula.
Founded: 2016
Founders: Shinta Nurfauzia, Ronald Wijaya, Johannes Ardiant
Key backers: Sofina, Sequoia India, East Ventures, Alpha JWC Ventures, Unifam Capital
The key lesson
If one lesson runs through this list, it is that Southeast Asia’s foodtech survivors have learned to follow the money rather than the hype. The cultivated-meat pioneers now sell cell lines and ingredients to food giants instead of chasing supermarket shelves. The supply-chain players still standing are the ones that stayed close to restaurants and traders who pay their invoices, not consumers who expect free delivery. Even the coffee chains, the sector’s flashiest success, are winning on loyalty apps and unit economics rather than buzz.
Also Read: Nadiem Makarim, eFishery, and the end of blind faith in startups
Look at who is writing the cheques, too. Commodity traders, convenience-store chains, Japanese megabanks, Thai conglomerates and an American e-commerce titan now sit alongside traditional VCs on these cap tables. That is validation, but it is also dependency, and the line between strategic partner and eventual acquirer is thin.
The coming years will test whether these companies can build durable businesses in a region of price-sensitive diners and wafer-thin margins. The appetite is clearly there. The real question is who can afford to feed it.
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