Bio Future Food Industry Council to Host IR Forum on the 25th

The Bio Future Food Industry Council (the Council), under the Korea Bio Association, announced on June 23 that it will host the '2025 BFFIC Global Agri-Food-Tech IR Forum' at the Oakwood Premier Hotel COEX Center in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on June 25.

The Council stated that it plans to strengthen the foundation for global expansion and investment attraction for domestic future food startups by signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the overseas venture capital firm Gobi Partners Venture Capital Singapore.

This forum is designed to provide rapidly growing startups in the bio-based food technology sector, or Food-Tech, with practical opportunities for direct collaboration with overseas investors and to share insights on global trends, with the goal of building a sustainable future food industry ecosystem.

Recently, Wildtype, a US cell-cultured food company invested in by SK Inc., received the world’s first approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for cell-cultured salmon. This is the first case in the seafood sector and serves as an encouraging signal that the era of cell-cultured foods is beginning in earnest. Amid these changes, it has become more important than ever for domestic Food-Tech companies to strengthen their competitiveness and establish strategies for global expansion.

Prior to the start of the forum, the Council will sign an MOU with Gobi Partners Venture Capital Singapore. Through this agreement, the parties plan to pursue various collaborative projects, including: promoting cross-border investments; discovering joint technology development programs; exchanging information on regulations and policies; and hosting joint forums and events. Beginning with this, the Council aims to support the growth of the future food and Food-Tech industries between Southeast Asia and Korea and to promote mutual integration.

Gobi Partners Venture Capital Singapore is the Singapore branch of Gobi Partners, which focuses on Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia. It is a venture capital (VC) firm that particularly emphasizes investment in early-stage startups and supporting the growth of technology-based companies.

The forum will feature a variety of programs, including global investor presentations, startup IR pitching, a future food trends panel discussion, and a networking session.

In the first session, four global investment firms?Gobi Partners Venture Capital Singapore, Betagro Group, Plug and Play Silicon Valley, and Innovate 360?will participate to share investment insights in the Food-Tech sector.

In the following panel discussion, Alvin Ng, a partner at Simple Planet, will serve as moderator, leading an in-depth discussion on the topic of 'Trends in the Future Food and Food-Tech Industry.'

During the company IR pitching session, four domestic companies will participate: T-AgroS, an agtech/seed production company; TissenBioFarm, a cell-cultured food company; Nulla Bio, an agtech/genome editing company; and Bioapp, a plant-based and animal pharmaceutical development company. These companies will introduce their technologies and exchange a variety of opinions with investors through a Q&A session.

Finally, Kevin Tianmeng Zhao, co-founder and CTO of China's Qi Biodesign, which focuses on crop development using gene editing technology, will deliver a keynote speech on 'The Future of Agriculture: Development and Application of Precision Gene Editing Technology in Plant Biotechnology.'

After all sessions have concluded, there will be a networking event where participating startups, global investors, and stakeholders in the future food industry can interact.

Jung Ildoo, chairman of the Bio Future Food Industry Council and organizer of the event, said, "This forum will serve as a very important milestone for domestic future food startups to connect directly with global investors and create practical collaboration opportunities." He emphasized, "If Korea's technological capabilities are combined with Southeast Asia's market potential in responding to global issues such as the climate crisis, food imbalance, and nutritional imbalance through technology, a powerful synergy can be created to realize a sustainable food ecosystem."

Oh Kihwan, executive director of the Korea Bio Association, said, "We expect this to be a very practical venue where domestic future food and Food-Tech startups can meet global investors and industry partners directly." He added, "This event will not only provide domestic companies with insights into global investment and technology trends, but also give global investors an opportunity to appreciate the innovative technologies and visions of domestic companies."

Meanwhile, this event is the first support event for the domestic future food industry to be held since the establishment of the Bio Future Food Industry Council under the Korea Bio Association in July last year. The Council was established to strengthen cooperation between upstream and downstream companies centered on bio-based future foods, including cultured meat, and to foster and vitalize the industry ecosystem. Thirty-three companies, including cell-cultured food startups and major food corporations such as Simple Planet, Hanwha Solutions, Daesang, CJ CheilJedang, Seaweed, MicroDigital, and Excell Therapeutics, are participating.