Southeast Asia is home to thousands of diverse plant and animal species that make up 20 per cent of the world’s tropical forests.
However, these forests today are being torn down aggressively for agriculture and urbanisation purposes.
According to Earth.org, if deforestation continues at this rate, it has the potential to wipe out over half of the Earth’s biodiversity in 2100.
But that’s not all, aggressive clearing of land has also shown to have a harsh effect on humans. For example, Malaria has long suspected to be a consequence of deforestation in Brazil.
As explained by National Geographic, ‘the virus is one of many infectious diseases generally confined to wildlife that has spilled over to people in areas undergoing rapid forest clearing’.
Some experts have even gone as far as to state the next pandemic could possibly emerge from the world’s forests.
While that is the current reality, there are also many companies now that are using tech to come up with sustainable solutions to tackle deforestation.
In honour of Earth Day on April 22, e27 has rounded up seven agritech startups that are aiming to directly or indirectly curb deforestation in Southeast Asia with their solutions.
The information in this article has been acquired from the e27 Startup Database and other platforms including Tracxn, Crunchbase, and Greenqueen.
Throughout our research, we discovered that deforestation remains an open opportunity for startups in SEA to seize. The number of startups in the region tackling deforestation is still relatively small, especially when compared to the magnitude of the problem.
We hope that this changes in the future as the world work together to fight climate change.
Here are the seven startups:
Bambooloo
Bambooloo is TNC’s (The Nurturing Co’s) flagship product that consists of a range of sustainable consumer products made from bamboo pulp. They include bamboo kitchen rolls, facial tissues, and natural fiber reusable masks, which are sourced from bamboo groves in China and made in ISO-certified factories.
“7,000 trees are cut down every day just to make toilet paper. This number is said to triple by 2050 according to the World Wildlife Fund. Not only does that lead to a huge level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but it also destroys the natural habitat for many magnificent animals. Bamboo, which is the fastest-growing material in the world, stores carbon in its root, not its bark-like trees do and thus cutting it down does not release the level of carbon dioxide that trees do. Bamboo is also grass not a tree and regenerative, unlike a tree after being cut. A roll of Bambooloo TP requires 90 per cent less water (9.8L) to produce and 70 per cent less carbon (132g),” said Bambooloo co-founder David Ward.
Country of Origin: Singapore
Total funding: Undisclosed
Investors: Razer
CocoPallet
In Asia, 170 million trees are cut down annually to produce 1.7 billion one-time use wooden pallets, which are mainly used for furniture.
To solve this problem, CocoPallet came up with a solution to use discarded coconut as a material that can fully replicate wooden pallets. The company utilises the natural glue present in coconut husks called the lingin to bind the material to create a sturdy, lightweight, and fire-resistant product.
Country of Origin: The Philippines, The Netherlands
Total funding: Undisclosed
Investors: Undisclosed
Farm-In-A-Box
Farm-In-A-Box is a startup that addresses challenges faced by novice growers by providing them starter planting kits, which can be progressively updated as they learn more.
It offers selected 3 best no-maintenance plants; the first is ready to eat in 5 days, the other gives good luck and the final one purifies the air.
Country of Origin: Malaysia, India
Total funding: Not announced
Investors: Self funded
iGrow
iGrow is a platform that allows ordinary people to earn money by funding local farmers. Similar to the popular mobile game Farmville, users need to decide how much to invest in on which plant, and wait for the crop to bear fruit on the iGrow website.
Its unique model promotes micro-farming, thus preventing the need for vast areas of land.
Country of Origin: Indonesia
Total funding: US$175,000
Investors: Rekanext, Google Launchpad Accelerator
Impact Terra
Impact Terra is an agritech startup that provides governments and smallholder farmers with climate analytics tools. It also provides actionable insights to smallholder farmers that can improve their crops. The company operates through its Golden Paddy application which provides farmers with alerts, chat, product, and financing options.
Also Read: Need of the hour: How agritech platforms can protect farmers from climate change
Focused on reducing climate risk, the company aims to be productive and have a sustainable environmental impact.
Country of Origin: Myanmar
Total funding: US$3 million
Investors: Geodata for Agriculture and Water
Poptani Asia
Poptani Asia offers infrastructures for indoor farming online. Its products help in setting up soil-based gardens to soil-less gardens for small-scale indoor farms and big urban spaces.
By providing companies with indoor farming materials, the agritech company indirectly contributes towards lower exploitation of land.
Country of Origin: Indonesia
Total funding: Undisclosed
Investors: Qeerad
RiTX
An Android-based application, RiTX Bertani focuses on the records of farming activities to help farmers apply Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), a proper cultivation practice with traceability principle that helps guarantee the safety of the produces, starting from the preparation all the way to the post-harvest products management. The records allow farmers to get recommendations on a more precise farming activity.
By using precision agriculture methods the startup increases yield in a smaller space, thereby reducing the need for more trees to be cut.
Country of Origin: Indonesia
Total funding: Undisclosed
Investors: Undisclosed
Sustenir Group
Sustenir Group is an indoor farm that uses methods such as controlled environment agriculture, vertical farming, and hydroponics to grow plants. While the majority of farmers use pesticides, Sustenir Group doesn’t use any making its products healthier.
By growing its plants indoors the company not only reduces carbon footprint but also diffuses spatial distribution, therefore drastically decreasing deforestation.
Country of Origin: Singapore
Total funding: Undisclosed
Investors: Temasek Holdings
Tunas Farm
Another indoor vertical farming company that produces and supplies organic microgreens. Its product offering includes kailan, kankung, red spinach, green romaine, Lolla Rossa, and more. What makes the company unique is that it offers people IoT farming tools kits with integrated automation and online monitoring to grow greens in their homes.
Also Read: The alarming environmental impact of Bitcoin mining
The company not just avoids the use of extensive land to farm but also encourages people to start growing their own greens.
Country of Origin: Indonesia
Total funding: US$1 million
Investors: Gayo Capital
Other notable agtech companies tackling deforestation
Ecosia
The only search engine in the world that uses ad revenue to plant trees. So far the company claims to have planted over 80 million trees in Ethiopia, Brazil, Indonesia, Spain, and other countries. Ecosia is also now an official search engine option alongside Google Search, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Yahoo!
Country of Origin: Germany
Total funding: US$15,000
Investors: Tim Schumacher
Dendra Systems
A tech company that uses AI and custom-built drones to plant trees for large-scale ecosystem restoration. Dendra Systems works on behalf of global natural resources companies to restore land all over the world. According to the company, an upgrade to its technology will accelerate the rate at which it can regain natural woodland terrain for land that has lost all the flora and fauna.
Country of Origin: UK
Total funding: US$21.2M
Investors: SYSTEMIQ, Lionheart Ventures, Airbus Ventures, VentureSouq, At One Ventures, Future Positive Capital
–
Image Credit: Matt Howard
The post Green for good: 9 agritech startups in Southeast Asia fighting deforestation appeared first on e27.