Caleb Wu, CEO | The regional food and agritech firm seeks to accelerate its commercial plans including the launch of a digital marketplace for the F&B sector and strengthening its operational capabilities within Indonesia
DDMiers | Regional Food and Agritech Firm, Glife Technologies closes Series A1 with US$3million investment from Tin Men Capital, bringing total capital raised to US$13 million | SINGAPORE, 14 September 2022 – Glife Technologies (“Glife”), a Singapore-headquartered digital business-to-business (B2B) food and agritech company, has announced a US$3 million (S$4.1M) Series A follow-on funding to further support their operations across the Southeast Asia region. This is a follow up to the US$4.96 million that Glife raised during its Series A in November 2021 and the subsequent US$2.9 million funding injected by existing investors in May 2022.
Fuelled by a burgeoning interest in the digitisation of the food supply chain across the region within Southeast Asia, this follow-on funding saw participation from a new strategic investor Tin Men Capital, a Singapore-based venture capital with a focus on B2B tech enterprises. Tin Men Capital joins previous Series A investors Heliconia Capital, a wholly owned investment subsidiary of Temasek Holdings and the Hibiscus Fund, a venture capital fund managed by Malaysia’s RHL Ventures and South Korea’s KB Investment, as part of the Dana Penjana Nasional (DPN) Programme by the Malaysian Government.
To date, Glife has raised US$13 million (S$18M) in funding, which supported operations across regional markets including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Glife will use the fresh funds to accelerate the launch and operations of its digital marketplace for F&B suppliers and merchants in Q42022 and enlarge its market share in the Indonesian market. The B2B digital marketplace will aggregate demand for food produce from restaurants and match it with suppliers, giving restaurants better access to a variety of products as well as better prices. The funding will also be used to further invest and strengthen its technology infrastructure as part of its goal of building an end-to-end digital supply chain solution that is fair, secure, more efficient, and sustainable for the food ecosystem.
Caleb Wu, Co-Founder and Deputy CEO of Glife Technologies, said “The additional funding from our investors indicates confidence in Glife’s business model and mission to feed Southeast Asia sustainably by empowering and uplifting farmers and businesses with technology. We aim to continue building efficiency and transparency across the food supply chain and create solutions that will uplift smallholder farmers across the region. This will further strengthen our solutions and accelerate our vision to build a better food future. We greatly appreciate the support we have received from our investors, both new and existing and will continue to strive to be the leading Agritech player in SEA.”
“The ongoing pandemic has exposed the brittleness of our supply chain. Disruptions have impacted the flow of produce from farms to customers and venture capital must support industry efforts to embrace innovation and integrate sustainability goals. Glife’s growth and track record is aligned with Tin Men’s mission of bringing technology to an undigitised, yet crucial industry, and positively impacting the community in the long term. We are proud to be backing the Glife team in their goal of digitising the food supply chain in SEA,” said Murli Ravi, Co-founder of Tin Men Capital.
Founded in 2018, Glife is a B2B food and agritech company that serves as a vertically integrated food service solutions provider for the food ecosystem in Southeast Asia using technology. The company has witnessed tremendous success over the past four years, having grown from a 20- man team in 2018 to an employee headcount of more than 250 in September 2022. Revenue has also expanded by more than 30x since its founding. Currently, the company serves more than 2,500 customers in the HORECA industry and over 1,000 farmers across the region.
Beyond capital investment, Tin Men Capital will be working hand in hand with Glife to build out their organisation and uncover new opportunities in the region. The Tin Men team believes that Glife’s solutions play an important role in helping operators in the food supply chain make the critical leap towards technology adoption. Tin Men Capital also has great confidence in the experienced and passionate team driving Glife with a clear vision and execution roadmap.
With agriculture and food as key drivers for Southeast Asia’s economy and GDP, greater internationalisation of the region’s food businesses is expected. Glife recognises the importance and potential of the industry, providing solutions to enable a resilient and agile food value chain to drive future growth for the industry.
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About Glife Technologies
Established in 2018, Glife Technologies is a technology start-up dedicated to uplifting farmers, suppliers and merchants in the food and agriculture industry as it aspires to feed Southeast Asia sustainably.
As a vertically integrated food service solution provider, Glife expanded its services in 2021 by providing the full stack of restaurant digital technologies for merchants in the HORECA industry. From seed-to-table supply chain distribution to driving the adoption of digital solutions for restaurants, Glife aims to connect stakeholders across the food value chain on a single platform to strengthen the eco-system.
Headquartered in Singapore, Glife serves more than 1,000 farmers and over 2,500 customers across the region.
About Tin Men Capital
Tin Men Capital is a Singapore-based venture capital firm licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. It is led by Singapore citizens Murli Ravi (formerly at Temasek Holdings and JAFCO) and Jeremy Tan (formerly at Morgan Stanley and Puma Energy). Tin Men’s advisory board consists of Mr Robert Binyon, Mr Haresh Khoobchandani, Mr Lee Ah Boon and Professor Bala Vissa.
Tin Men invests in industrial technologies and automation opportunities that are coming to the fore in South-East Asia spanning segments such as smart cities, security, manufacturing, agriculture, transportation and supply chain, retail enablement, travel and tourism, and enterprise productivity. Portfolio companies include Hubble, Zipline, GlobalTix, Overdrive, IVS and Braiven (formerly known as Brazn).
For more information, visit www.tinmen.asia.
For media inquiries via Redhill on behalf of Glife Technologies, please contact:
Marta Bigio
Redhill Communications marta.bigio@redhill.asia +65 8421 31 30
Victoria Mak
Redhill Communications victoria.mak@redhill.asia +65 9173 3801
For media inquiries via Grow Public Relations on behalf of Tin Men Capital, please contact:
Jessica Ong
Grow Public Relations
Jessica@growpublicrelations.com +60 17-226 7995
Christel Goh
Grow Public Relations
Christel@growpublicrelations.com +65 9328 0107
