Seviora and Temasek Form Partnership to Invest in High Growth and Innovative Agri-Food Companies in APAC
Singapore, 9 February 2024
Seviora Holdings (“Seviora”) has partnered with Temasek to jointly invest in late venture and early growth Agri-Food Companies in the Asia Pacific (“APAC”) region, through Seviora Capital’s The Future of Food and Farming (the “Seviora T3F”) Strategy.
Since August 2023, the Seviora T3F Strategy has raised US$173 million. The amount comprises seed capital from Seviora and Temasek, which ensures a strong alignment of interest with all investors, an investment by cornerstone investor Norinchukin Bank, as well as investments from other institutional investors. Seviora Capital expects to raise capital from institutional investors to participate in this commitment to drive transformation in the Agri-Food industry.
The Seviora T3F Strategy invests in compelling, innovative, and high-growth Agri-Food companies in the region that provide sustainable solutions and technologies to meet the challenges posed by massive demographic changes and fast-evolving consumer needs. It looks to identify companies that can help the Agri-Food system accelerate to a more sustainable and resilient future, and one which meets evolving consumption trends. An ecosystem of Agri-Food high growth and start-up companies is emerging rapidly across the region and building momentum. These companies are crucial in developing solutions and technologies that are deployable at scale and can address the challenges and opportunities in the Agri-Food systems both in APAC and around the world.
“The Seviora T3F Strategy is a unique investment avenue to gain exposure and benefit from the transformation and high-growth in the Agri-Food sector in the APAC region,” said Jimmy Phoon, CEO at Seviora and Seviora Capital. “Seviora is excited to jointly invest with Temasek, a globally recognised leader in the Agri-Food sector, to capture the potential of this industry. We will be able to access a strong pipeline of investment opportunities through leveraging Temasek’s extensive network and ecosystem, as well as their experience and success in this space.”
As Investment Manager, Seviora Capital will build a portfolio of investments from opportunities identified by Temasek, leveraging their extensive investment network, deep knowledge, and strong sourcing capability in the Agri-Food sector. Seviora Capital and Temasek will jointly evaluate these opportunities, capitalise on each other’s complementary strengths, and independently make investment decisions.
“The transformation of the Agri-Food sector is critical to decarbonisation while ensuring food security, and meeting the evolving needs of consumers,” said Anuj Maheshwari, Head of Agri-Food at Temasek. "Through this partnership with Seviora Group, we aim to scale capital and create value by investing in late venture and early growth Agri-Food companies across the APAC region that are at the forefront of innovation, leveraging technology to drive positive and sustainable change across the Agri-Food value chain."
Seviora and Temasek view the Agri-Food sector as being at a pivotal inflection point and presenting attractive investment opportunities. Through the Seviora T3F Strategy, Seviora and Temasek aim to capitalise on macro trends shaping the APAC Agri-Food sector and make investments that will drive transformation and positive changes across the Agri-Food value chain:
- Asia is home to 60% of the world’s population1 but only 35% of global arable land2. Asia will need to produce more with less to feed its growing population. The region is projected to add another 250 million new citizens, equivalent to Indonesia’s population, by 20303;
- Asia needs more solutions to improve agriculture efficiency, market access and financing for farmers as the agriculture sector in emerging economies is severely fragmented. Over 80% of the region’s food consumption is produced by 450 million smallholder farmers who each work on land plots of less than 2 hectares4;
- Asia is currently experiencing a massive shift in food trends as its consumers are becoming more affluent, sophisticated, and demanding. These trends are slated to drive US$2.4 trillion of incremental food spend in Asia by 2030. However, it will require US$1.5 trillion in upstream investments to meet this forecast3;
- Agri-Food is a significant contributor to global emissions, accounting for about 34% of all emissions5. This dynamic is even more pronounced in some regions in Asia, such as South and Southeast Asia, where it contributes up to 50% of total emissions. Agri-Food is therefore a key consideration when looking to decarbonise Asia6.
In January 2024, under the Seviora T3F Strategy, an investment of US$17 million has been made in Country Delight – a subscription-led online food essentials delivery brand in India, that focuses on delivering high quality milk, milk derivatives, and other food essentials direct to consumers. Seviora Capital believes that Country Delight’s tech-enabled platform and strong brand proposition built around quality and trust allows the company to be best positioned to address key customer pain points relating to purity, freshness, and convenience.
Over the past decade, Temasek has invested over US$8 billion in innovative and scalable farm-to-fork businesses globally, with a growing portfolio of investments in APAC. Seviora Capital believes that the time is right to deploy capital to this key sector in APAC to benefit from the strong growth expected over the next decade.
For more details on Seviora Capital, and Seviora Group, please visit www.sevioracapital.com and www.sevioragroup.com respectively.
1 (n.d.) Asia Population 2024. World Population Review. https://worldpopulationreview.com/continents/asia-population https://worldpopulationreview.com/continents/asia-population
2 (n.d.) Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. FAOSTAT. https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/RL
3 (2021) The Asia Food Challenge Understanding the New Asian Consumer. Temasek, PwC and Rabobank. https://www.temasek.com.sg/content/dam/temasek-corporate/news-and-views/resources/reports/afc-report-2021.pdf
4 (n.d.) Seeding the Future of Agriculture in Asia. Syngenta. https://www.syngenta.com.sg/seeding-future-agriculture-asia
5 (2021). Food systems account for more than one third of global greenhouse gas emissions. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. https://www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/Food-systems-account-for-more-than-one-third-of-global-greenhouse-gas-emissions/en
6 (2023). The Asia Food Challenge Decarbonising the Agri-Food Value Chain in Asia. Temasek, PwC, Rabobank and Terrascope. https://www.theasiafoodchallenge.com/documents/afc-report-2023.pdf
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For further information,
Email: seviora@fticonsulting.com
Telephone: +65 6831 7896
About Seviora Capital and Seviora Group
Seviora Capital is a Singapore-based Investment Manager, which provides venture capital and growth funds, as well as other bespoke investment solutions across a broad range of strategies in both public and private markets to global investors.
Seviora Capital is part of Seviora Group, a Singapore-headquartered independent asset management group with US$52 billion in assets under management, wholly owned by Temasek. The Seviora Group provides global investors access to a wide range of investment strategies in both public and private markets. The Group has a strong talent pool of over 170 investment professionals, supported by more than 250 staff, with primary presences in Singapore, India and China.
The Seviora Group is aligned with the interests of its investors via its substantial investments in its underlying funds, by way of both investment capital and resources, giving them scale and a competitive edge.
The Seviora Group’s asset management companies include Azalea Investment Management, Fullerton Fund Management, InnoVen Capital, Seatown Holdings International and Seviora Capital.
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