Vegan discovery platform abillionveg gets US$2M seed funding, aims to grow community
Singapore-based social impact platform abillionveg today announced a US$2 million seed funding round led by 500 Startups.
The funding round also included the participation of 1/0 Capital, Blue Horizon Group, Calibre Ventures, and family offices across Asia and the US.
Hong Kong-based Founder of Room to Read and prolific author John Wood has also come on board as an investor and advisor to the startup.
The platform itself is a community-driven review platform for plant-based menu items, packaged foods, and cruelty-free consumer products.
Its members earn credits when they post reviews, which convert into donations for animal and marine life welfare organisations.
abillionveg also sends consumer reviews to businesses, with the goal to help them improve and introduce more sustainable options.
In a press statement, abillionveg Founder and CEO Vikas Garg explained the business goal of helping a billion people join the plant-based movement by 2030 and of donating US$1 billion to support animal welfare and education causes.
“Our funding will be used to accelerate our efforts in recruitment, technology, and growing our community to achieve this,” Garg said.
In 2020, abillionveg plans to donate US$1 million.
The company said that the funding represents one of the largest seed funding rounds for a social impact startup in Southeast Asia and for a plant-based startup globally.
To date, it has raised a total of US$2.6 million, with a US$500,000 investment announced in November 2018.
Investments into startups that are working to build or popularise the alternative to meat products are becoming popular lately.
In April, Big Idea Ventures announced the first close of its US$50 million New Protein Fund, which targets companies that are building meat replacement. In Singapore, it has made an investment into ShiokMeat.