CEO and founder Eugene Wang now aims to shift the business to the Netherlands to tap into its plant-based protein ecosystem. Singapore-based Sophie’s Bionutrients introduced the world’s first milk alternative…

CEO and founder Eugene Wang now aims to shift the business to the Netherlands to tap into its plant-based protein ecosystem.

Singapore-based Sophie’s Bionutrients introduced the world’s first milk alternative made from protein-rich microalgae earlier this year. CEO and founder Eugene Wang now aims to shift the business to the Netherlands to tap into its plant-based protein ecosystem.

Algae-based ingredients have piqued food industry interest in recent years as a sustainable, animal-free source of protein, lipids and micronutrients. Traditionally grown in open ponds, they are extremely fast-growing and require few inputs – but Wang sees an even better way to grow microalgae for food, based on fermentation using various food industry waste as feedstock.

“Since I am trying to make it into foods, all I care about is the protein,” he explained. “I don’t care about the lipid. Since I am just caring about protein I can then use fermentation to increase production efficiency a lot, lot more. That’s how I stumbled on this technology.”