Shandi Global Launches Largest Plant-Based Chicken Manufacturing Facility in Singapore

Plant-based meat start-up Shandi Global has launched Singapore's largest plant-based chicken manufacturing facility following a second seed funding round to commercialise and scale the company’s proprietary plant-based products.

Shandi was founded in 2019 by food industry expert, research veteran and lifelong vegetarian Dr. Reena Sharma. The food-tech company uses a unique process to develop and manufacture its plant-based chicken, which is made only with natural, non-GMO ingredients such as pea protein, chickpeas, quinoa, flax seeds, brown rice, and coconut oil, and is free from artificial flavourings and other additives.

Last year the start-up closed its second seed round raising more than US$700,000 led by Singapore-headquartered Tolaram, one of Africa's largest packaged food companies. Other investors in the round included Australia-based food-tech accelerator SparkLabs Cultiv8, and former CEO-India for Louis Dreyfus and prominent angel investor Simmarpal Singh.

The funding was used to both set up the manufacturing facility in Singapore and to further product innovation and development on new textures, formats, and other meat analogues.

Through their proprietary technology, Shandi claims to have recreated a plant-based product that feels and reacts to cooking, almost exactly like meat. The firm is now producing plant-based chicken products in various formats such as patties, pieces, shreds, strips, and drumsticks.

"Shandi is committed to promoting food sustainability through innovation in food-tech, and to do this at scale and fast. We are currently focusing on business-to-business partnerships, whose established networks we are tapping on to quickly introduce our products to as many people as possible. This will enable us to quickly expand so that we can continue research and development to further improve our offerings," says Sharma.

With the product's versatility and ease of use, Shandi has been accepted by more than 50 food establishments, which serve more than 18,000 people in Singapore every day. In addition, the product has a protein content of close to 30%, on par with the protein content of actual chicken meat. This makes Shandi's offering a most attractive one for the schools and hospitals which have started to offer Shandi's plant-based chicken in their menus.

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