Thanks to Hoow Foods, a food technology start-up based in NUS Enterprise@Singapore Science Park, there is finally a way to enjoy a delicious ice cream binge without all the guilt.
Four NUS alumni, Yau Png, Zhong Hao, Wang Qun Xiong and Dr Sherman Ho, co-founded Hoow Foods upon seeing the increasingly unhealthy diets and rise of chronic metabolic diseases both locally and globally.
Meet three of the co-founders of Hoow Foods (left to right): Dr Sherman Ho (Chief Technology Officer), Yau Png (Chief Executive Officer), Wang Qun Xiong (Director of Strategy and Finance).
Acknowledging the popularity of this age-old delicacy in Singapore, the team wanted to venture into the untapped realm of healthy ice cream. The resulting Callery’s Ice Cream proved to be a significant milestone for Hoow Foods as it only took six months to be commercialised upon conception and is Singapore and Asia’s first premium low-calorie ice cream to be offered in a pint.
Hoow Foods targets food manufacturing and retail companies who are interested in modifying their products’ nutritional profile into something healthier. As such, beyond just healthy ice cream, Hoow Foods focuses on reformulation technology, where traditional recipes are transformed into healthier versions without compromising on taste and texture. Using their own smart platform, which incorporates machine learning and AI to reformulate food, they have been able to make their product development fast and efficient.
Since joining the NUS Enterprise ecosystem in early 2019, the company has already received many opportunities. From being part of the Alternative Protein Marketplace Industry Day in 2019 to networking with global industry leaders such as Nestle, Givaudan, and Ingredion, the prospects seem to be endless.
These accomplishments came as no easy feat as Hoow Foods had to overcome several hurdles like proving the workability of their technology. Fortunately, the eventual launch of Callery’s Ice Cream helped legitimise their technology and convinced interested parties of the company’s reformulation abilities. That said, a challenge they are presently facing is developing their market for reformulation.
According to co-founder Yau Png, many smaller companies are still unaware of the global shift towards healthy and sustainable food. Therefore, they still see a need to educate these companies on consumers’ willingness to pay a premium for healthier food, so long as it tastes good.
Despite these speedbumps, Hoow Foods is not slowing down. They have recently garnered SG $1.7 million in seed funding led by Singaporean food conglomerate, Killiney Group. This funding will be used to boost the company’s operations and R&D capacities as well as to increase their staff strength.
Evidently, Hoow Foods is determined to help address the global epidemics of obesity and diabetes by enabling a successful move towards sustainable foods.
They are very excited for what the future holds and are grateful for the opportunities provided by NUS Enterprise. As Yau Png himself said, “Being NUS alumni ourselves, we’re proud to fly the NUS flag high!”
We too are proud to see our very own students powering through the start-up world and bringing brilliant innovations into the market.
Plant protein recovered from food processing waste can also be formulated into Plant Protein Composite (PPCTM) bio ink and 3D printed into the world’s only PPCTM scaffold for cell culture, thereby eliminating the high cost and risk of animal disease transmission associated with use of animal proteins for cell culture. The bioscaffold has now been launched and is available for purchase at A*STAR’s Research Support Centre website.
Considering herself a ‘reformed drug pusher,’ co-founder Florence Leong met her co-founder A/P Huang Dejian, while serving as an NUS Enterprise advisor. Bonded by a shared mission of expanding mass access to health from nature, they joined hands to translate A/P Huang’s technological prowess into market impact.
“If I’d have to name an inspiration, it would be a strong belief that Singapore needs its own organic growth machinery and needs to harness the billions invested in R&D. Enough has been spent on R&D; it is now time for 'M' - monetising R&D for market impact,” said Florence Leong.
KosmodeHealth is a beneficiary of strong support from NUS Enterprise, National Addictive Manufacturing Innovation Cluster (NAMIC) and Enterprise Singapore (ESG). KosmodeHealth was incubated by NUS Enterprise first at The HANGAR, and now at NUS Enterprise @ Singapore Science Park, where their PPCTM 3D Bioprinting facility will be set up. KosmodeHealth’s achievement of being the developer of the world’s only PPCTM Bio-ink & Bioscaffold, and setting up the world’s only PPCTM 3D Bioprinting facility, was made possible with the respective grant support of NAMIC and ESG.
“More important than the physical and financial support is the strong moral support and confidence in KosmodeHealth provided by the various stakeholders - support which is intangible and priceless. This support is invaluable in helping KosmodeHealth to demonstrate technology validation with pilot scale extraction capability and market validation with paying customers.”