Three years after being founded, in October 2020, the Belgian start-up Paleo is announcing its first expansion. The company is launching an office in Singapore, to serve as a base for future operations in the wider APAC region. “We aim to also market our animal-free proteins in the Asia-Pacific in the near future,” says Hermes Sanctorum (CEO). Company executives are travelling to the island state this week to officially launch their new branch and reach-out to potential partners.

The originally Belgian FoodTech start-up started off three years ago with a mission to produce animal proteins, without using animals. “We focus on myoglobin as an ingredient which adds the taste, colour and smell of animal meat and fish to plant-based alternatives, and which also provides bio-available iron,” explains Sanctorum (CEO). “Our ingredient is bio-identical to the animal version, yet also GMO-free. The only difference with conventional meat compounds is that we don’t need a large carbon footprint or animal suffering, and that’s what we are all about.”

Paleo is today launching an office in Singapore, a global hotspot for the meat and fish of the future. “If we wanted to expand anywhere as a growing foodtech start-up, it had to be here first. Our promising, cutting-edge technology can simply not be lacking over here,” explains Sanctorum (CEO) who is representing his company at the Asia-Pacific Agri-Food Innovation Summit, currently also taking place in Singapore. “Our presence here this week is the perfect occasion to start building local networks for
future collaborations.”

The worldwide potential of Paleo’s product is big: “Especially the wider APAC region is of great interest for us, as it proofs that the demand for plant-based and non-conventional meat products is on the rise. And, albeit small, also Singapore is investing in sustainable and future-oriented ways of food production. I am glad to see that specifically precision fermentation is being acknowledged both by investors as well as by governmental action plans,” adds Sanctorum (CEO).

Paleo’s CEO is a first-hand witness to the eagerness of the market: “Already today, without our product being fully available for applications in plant-based meat and fish replacers, the interest of companies is enormous. We find ourselves between managing expectations on the short term and preparing for growth on the medium and longer term. We are simply putting everything into place for a swift take-off in the near future.”