Breakthroughs
don't scale themselves
Turning food and farming innovations into commercially viable businesses
Get in touchTransforming animal agriculture
The problem
Industrial animal agriculture drives emissions, deforestation and biodiversity loss1, and keeps tens of billions of animals in factory farms2.
What's needed
Higher‑welfare, sustainable farming today and alternative proteins that reduce reliance on animals tomorrow.
My role
I help the companies building these solutions, and their funders, turn breakthrough innovations into viable businesses that make it past the pilot stage.
- 1FAO, Pathways towards lower emissions (2023); FAO, Livestock's Long Shadow (2006); Our World in Data, Drivers of deforestation.
- 2Sentience Institute, Global Farmed & Factory Farmed Animals Estimates.
The scale of the problem
12%
of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock systems.
Source: FAO (2023)
83%
of farmland goes to meat and dairy, which supply 18% of the world's calories.
Source: Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science
74%
of the world's farmed land animals live in factory farms: around 23 billion at any one time.
73%
of all antimicrobials used worldwide go to farmed animals, contributing to the rise of drug-resistant infections.
Source: Mulchandani et al. (2023), PLOS Global Public Health
Much of the technology to solve this already exists
I help build the business models and commercial path to take it to scale
My focus areas
Sustainable farming
Companies redesigning the traditional farm with animal welfare and sustainability at its core.
Food tech
Companies building alternative proteins, including precision-fermented dairy proteins, cultivated meat and mycoprotein.
Typical challenges I help with
Founders
Making the leap from proven product to market: winning the first major customers and building the team to scale.
Investors
Getting portfolio companies with strong technology through the early commercial and team-building stages.
Philanthropists
Building a business case for welfare commitments that the C-suite will act on, and a compelling story for donors.
Public bodies
Turning grantees' working technology into revenue and adoption.
About me
I've spent over 20 years as an operator, first in corporate roles at Deloitte and American Express, and then as founder and CEO of CardUp, a regulated and VC-backed payments company headquartered in Singapore, acquired in 2022.
My lifelong sensitivity to animal welfare and environmental sustainability eventually demanded a shift in focus. Today, I am channelling my experience to the front lines of food production, specifically to transforming animal agriculture.
Building a business in a licensed industry taught me how to win regulatory approval, earn the trust of partners and investors, and scale under scrutiny: the same challenges food and farming companies face today.
Having sat in the founder's seat, I work as an operator, not an adviser: hands-on, inside the team, to make things happen. I also angel invest in companies building solutions for higher-welfare farming.
Areas of expertise
- Building teams to scale
- Business case development
- Commercial strategy
- Corporate partnerships
- Regulatory pathways
- Capital raising