Cargill is partnering with the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) to launch its first digital business studio in Asia
The studio aims to assist local founders with investments that speed up food and agriculture industry innovation and bring Cargill solutions to the market. A portfolio containing around 5 new start-ups will be developed. These start-ups will primarily focus on critical industry challenges ranging from broadening the access to market data for smallholder farmers to creating more cost-effective food supply solutions.
Cargill has now started recruiting talented entrepreneurs who are keen on finding solutions to some of the most urgent and pressing issues being faced by the global food and agriculture system. “Cargill is combining its deep industry expertise with the speed and agility of a start-up approach to launch the digital business studio,” said Ross Hamou-Jennings, chair of Asia Pacific at Cargill. “With Singapore’s prominence and reputation as a vibrant agri-innovation hub, we are pleased to collaborate with EDB on this initiative,” he added.
EDB’s executive vice president, Choo Heng Tong also expressed his excitement in regard to the three-year partnership. “Cargill can provide significant advantages for these ventures through its deep domain expertise, customer networks and global scale, while leveraging Singapore’s connectivity to key markets and R&D capabilities,” said Choo Heng Tong. “These ventures will be the forefront of innovations, complementing Singapore’s development of novel agri-food solutions and contributing to global food resiliency efforts,” he added.
Eric Parkin, global digital business studio leader at Cargill emphasised that the studio was indeed a unique and remarkable model that gave the opportunity to entrepreneurs to transform the industry by bringing about change not only on a regional scale, but also on a global scale. The studio will act as a platform to allow expanded reach into digital innovation, thus introducing new solutions to meet the ever-changing needs to the food and agriculture industries. Digital solutions will hence play a crucial role in boosting farmers’ productivity and yield, thereby improving their livelihood.
“The opportunity to wake up every day and create solutions that improve lives and nourish the world is game changing,” said Eric.
