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It’s easy to get caught up in the news and activities of the industry’s global giants, but what about the smaller firms pushing boundaries with bold ideas? In this instalment of Start-up of the Month – which celebrates lesser-known companies and their innovations – we speak to Daryl Pek, co-founder of Mottainai Food Tech, parent company of Jiro Meat, about the company's recent expansion and its mission to valorise food waste.

Congratulations on the recent opening of your facility in Singapore. Could you tell us how the opportunity came about and what you plan to do at the site?

After winning the DBS x NEA Hungry for Change Challenge, we were awarded funding support to establish a lab and further develop our idea of producing plant-based protein from okara. The initial trials delivered promising results, which gave us the confidence to raise additional funds. This led to us setting up our pilot manufacturing plant and R&D lab and enabled us to advance Jiro Meat to a higher technology readiness level and begin testing its commercial viability.

Could you tell us more about Mottainai Food Tech’s aims and how the company came to be?

Mottainai Food Tech is a Singapore-based food technology company focused on developing fermentation-driven solutions to create healthier, more affordable and sustainable nutrition. The name ‘Mottainai’ is a Japanese term expressing regret over waste, which reflects our philosophy of creating value from overlooked or underutilised ingredients.

The company came about after we began exploring how nutrient-rich side streams like okara – the insoluble pulp of soybeans that remains after they are filtered to make soy milk and tofu – could be upcycled into high-value food products. Our early work in this area showed strong potential, and this gave us the confidence to scale those ideas into real solutions. Our first product, Jiro Meat, grew out of this journey, demonstrating how fermentation and food science can transform by-products into clean-label, high-fibre protein that supports both taste and health.

What inspired the idea to upcycle okara, and why is it so important to reduce food waste by upcycling byproducts?

The inspiration to upcycle okara came from recognising both its scale as a waste stream and its untapped nutritional value. In Singapore alone, more than 10,000 tonnes of okara are generated each year, and globally, the number reaches over 14 million tonnes. Because okara is highly perishable due to its moisture content, most producers discard it at a cost or divert it to low-value uses like animal feed, even though it is rich in fibre and protein. Very few companies have been able to effectively transform okara into palatable, high-value food, and those that do typically incorporate only very low percentages of okara in their products.

By valorising okara through fermentation, we are able to achieve two goals at once: reducing food waste and carbon emissions, while creating healthier and more affordable nutrition. Beyond reducing emissions from incinerating or landfilling okara, this approach also helps alleviate the environmental burden from conventional livestock production, which contributes 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions and places immense pressure on land and water resources. By upcycling nutrient-rich by-products into functional foods, we can build a more sustainable food system that is less reliant on livestock while making better use of existing resources.

What challenges do you anticipate when scaling up this kind of production method?

Scaling up from lab to pilot production has been challenging due to the larger scale and increased manpower requirements. Automation, customising equipment and fine-tuning fermentation parameters to suit our specific processes will be essential to scaling up our technology. This has been a costly and time-consuming journey, but it is essential to ensure the consistent quality and scalability of Jiro Meat. We envision that similar challenges will be encountered by the team as we scale up further.

Can you tell us a bit more about how your flagship Jiro Meat product came about and walk us through the process of creating it?

Jiro Meat is created by upcycling okara into a nutritious, versatile protein. The process begins with collecting okara from food manufacturers, adding a proprietary blend and incubating the mixture for a few days to allow fermentation to occur, before packing and freezing it for use in various applications. While the process may appear simple at first glance, it is elegantly simple and achieving this required significant time and effort as we finetuned our fermentation parameters and identified the optimal mix of ingredients.

Do you have plans to release Jiro Meat to a wider audience or offer other similar products using the same process?

With the launch of our pilot facility, we have begun meaningful business development and are seeing strong interest. Fermentation is a delicate process that can behave differently depending on the substrates used, so careful optimisation is required. We have prototypes in the pipeline that we plan to launch when they are ready. This involves using both side-streams and other ingredients, along with our proprietary blend of cultures, to develop new products and ingredients through fermentation.

What key challenges have there been to securing retail slots for a product like Jiro Meat? How does the regulatory landscape look for novel foods like this?

Our current focus is on B2B channels, as we believe this approach will help drive adoption in an already competitive and saturated industry. The key challenges are similar to those faced by other plant-based companies, including initial scepticism around product cost and perceptions related to ingredient complexity. These are challenges that we believe Jiro Meat and our production approach can address.

In terms of regulation, it is a collaborative landscape. We work closely with regulators to demonstrate that our processes are robust, our products are safe, and everything we create is fit for human consumption. This ensures both compliance and confidence in introducing novel food products like Jiro Meat to the market.

How do Mottainai’s solutions compare to other food waste processes, and what challenges have you faced in developing this solution?

Many existing food waste processes either convert only a small portion of the waste into products suitable for human consumption or they treat it and produce lower-value outputs such as animal feed. In contrast, Mottainai Food Tech’s fermentation platform enables us to valorise a much higher proportion of food manufacturing side-streams directly into nutritious, functional foods for people. This means we are creating higher-value, healthier products while maximising the resource efficiency of the input materials.

One of the key challenges we have faced is that this approach represents a novel application of fermentation science. Turning side-streams into high-quality food ingredients requires significant R&D and process optimisation, and we have invested a great deal of time and effort to scale our technology to where it is today. While this has been complex, it has also allowed us to build a strong technological foundation and unique expertise that set us apart in the field.

For other start-ups in this industry, especially those focused on reducing waste and promoting sustainability, what advice would you offer in regards to securing patents and funding?

One strategy worth considering is to carefully weigh the benefits of patents versus trade secrets. Patents can provide strong protection, but the application process is time-consuming, costly, and can expose sensitive information if unsuccessful. For some key processes, keeping them as trade secrets can be a more efficient way to safeguard competitive advantage while avoiding unnecessary disclosure.

Equally important is ensuring there is a clear market fit. Too often, start-ups in sustainability and food tech focus heavily on R&D and product development but neglect early validation with customers and partners. Demonstrating commercial viability early on not only sharpens the value proposition but also makes fundraising conversations more compelling.

Finally, assembling a well-rounded team is crucial. Having someone with financial expertise (whether as a co-founder, advisor, or early hire) can help navigate funding strategies, manage costs, and plan for sustainable growth and scaling.

Looking ahead, what are your long-term goals at the facility, and where do you see Mottainai Food Tech in five years?

In five years, we hope to expand our production capacity with a larger plant so that Jiro Meat and our other innovations can reach a much wider audience. At the same time, we envision our current facility continuing to serve as a hub for R&D, where ideas can be tested and piloted before scaling.