Sustainable food-focused Germi8 has been co-founded by Leave a Nest and has backing from fellow corporates Kobashi Industries and Euglena.

Singapore-based, agriculture-focused investment firm Germi8 has launched with backing from various corporate investors and will invest almost $1m in Southeast Asian startups.

The firm was co-founded by Leave a Nest, which runs a training scheme for university students, and venture creation firm Focus Tech Ventures. They are partnering agricultural machinery manufacturer Kobashi Industries and biotech company Euglena.

Germi8 will invest a total of ¥100m ($940,000) in about 20 seed-stage startups over the next three years.

The vehicle will focus on…

James Mawson

James Mawson is founder and chief executive of Global Venturing.