Hafnium Ventures, an arm of investment firm Hafnium Hafaway, has announced a partnership with Republic Polytechnic that will commercialise soy cheese products.

The collaboration will support Hafnium’s growth in the food and nutrition sector, and enable the commercialisation of Republic Polytechnic-led innovations. The institution has developed a range of cheese alternatives using soybean by-product okara.

The first venture to be established under the partnership is SoiLabs, which will commercialise the plant-based cheese products. Made without synthetic additives, the dairy-free alternative comes in three different variations: sliced, cream and instant soup.

SoiLabs director, Mauro Catellani, commented: “Plant-based food products are gaining popularity in Asia, and we are already seeing interest in our products from the alternative burger sector”.

“We see tremendous potential for the soy cheese slices and cream cheese in meeting the needs of the rapidly growing plant-based market. Through further research and development, we are confident that together with the RP [Republic Polytechnic] team, we will roll out new okara-based food products moving forward.”

The partnership will enable Hafnium to leverage the polytechnic’s nutrition and packaging expertise.

Boon Whatt Lim, director at Republic Polytechnic’s School of Applied Science, said: “We are excited to embark on this journey with Hafnium. The SoiLabs venture is an example of how RP is developing industry solutions to strengthen Singapore’s food supply resilience and achieve the goals set out in the nation’s ‘Zero Waste Masterplan’.

“Moving forward, we hope to work closely with Hafnium to accelerate product innovations to support the development of their existing businesses.”

John Savage, partner at Hafnium, added: “We have been impressed with the level of investment being made by RP into the nutrition and packaging space. This is just the beginning, and we expect to deepen our relationship, both spinning out new ventures and delivering the innovative thinking to drive our existing nutrition businesses forward.”

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