Singapore’s appetite for alternative meat seems to be waning, with yet another lab-grown meat company biting the dust.

Cultivated meat company Avant Proteins is shutting down its Singapore operations, reported a notice on Singapore’s Government Gazette.

The seafood cell research company declared on Jan 30 that it was voluntarily winding up its business here due to its liabilities.

Alternative proteins are foods that have the same taste, texture, and experience of animal products that consumers love–just made in different ways. They comprise plant-based food, cultivated (lab-grown) meat or fungi-based derivatives from fermentation.

Avant Proteins is a research firm founded in 2018 by Hong Kong-based Avant, which calls itself Asia’s first cultivated fish company. The former had goals of producing fish meat without killing them.

As of Feb 10, the firm’s Hong Kong entity, Avant Meats Company, remains a private company limited by shares, according to the Hong Kong Companies Registry.

Avant Proteins’ departure from Singapore is the latest of at least three lab-grown meat companies that have struggled to scale operations in the Republic, years after it hit global headlines in 2020 as the first country to approve the commercial sale of cultured meat.

Cultivated meat is made by growing animal cells in bioreactors, a process similar to brewing beer.

This approach is considered more humane and sustainable than traditional farming, using far less land and labour.

However, the sector has faced hurdles since 2023, struggling to scale up due to difficulties in commercialising the technology, high costs, and uncertain consumer demand.

Avant’s co-founder Carrie Chan told The Straits Times in 2024 that investors had become “more conservative” due to economic conditions.

“Some are thinking (this sector) is more challenging, and they should not be investing in anything at the pre-revenue stage as the tech involved can be difficult to scale up quickly,” Chan said back then.

Checks on the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority’s database found that Avant Biotechnology was still live, while Avant Proteins is in liquidation, as at Feb 11.

Short life span in Singapore

After establishing itself in Hong Kong in 2018, Avant revealed plans in 2021 to expand into Singapore by opening a research lab in collaboration with A*STAR’s Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI).

The lab was launched to scale up production of food-grade cultivated fish fillets and fish maw.

A*STAR stated that the collaboration concluded as scheduled two years later, with Avant establishing its own pilot facility in Woodlands.

“Through this work, A*STAR BTI and Avant Meats gained valuable insights into upstream bioprocessing, production challenges and scale-up considerations,” it said.

According to its latest LinkedIn post, Avant subsequently ramped up operations at its Woodlands pilot facility, noting that it had contributed to public education on the future of animal proteins.

The post also highlighted that the company had commercialised skincare technology using cultivated fish cells and continued to advance its cultivated fish products toward approval by the Singapore Food Agency.

However, as of Feb 11, Avant Meats’ website—which showcased both its skincare line and lab-grown meat—went offline, though the site for its skincare technology remains active.

Restaurants are axing plant-based meat from their menus due to high costs and low demand

Once a prominent menu feature, plant-based meat dishes have quietly disappeared from several restaurants, while others have reduced their selections or moved them to optional add-ons at an extra charge, said a Channel News Asia report.

The global appetite for plant-based meat saw the sharpest rise between 2018 and 2020. During this period, numerous casual dining chains, even Asian restaurants, jumped on the trend, incorporating plant-based “Impossible” meat options into their menus.

Experts linked the surge to a combination of factors: aggressive marketing, rising consumer interest in health-conscious and sustainable eating, and, in Singapore, the government’s focus on alternative proteins to bolster food security.

They’ve also noted that the appeal of plant-based meats has declined once the novelty faded. Improvements in taste and texture still lagged behind expectations and struggled to justify their high prices.

Instead of imitating meat, some restaurants are shifting their focus to whole-food, plant-based options.

For example, vegan burger eatery Veganburg has emphasized whole-food vegan patties over highly processed meat substitutes. Its operations director, Blessed Chee, noted that the store discontinued Impossible plant-based meat due to cost considerations.

A 340g packet of minced Impossible beef retails for S$12.12 while 1kg of real minced beef costs S$11.35 on Fairprice’s website.

Is cultivated meat heading in the same direction to becoming a flop?

Previously, California-based Eat Just had suspended its cultivated meat production in Singapore, while local company Shiok Meats merged with Singapore-based Umami Bioworks, a specialist in marine cell cultivation.

For years, companies have promised that commercially-viable lab-grown meat was right around the corner, but repeated missed product launches and setbacks have eroded investor confidence in the space. From 2024 to 2025, total investment in the cultivated meat industry dipped by 74%, from US$139 million to US$36 million.

Only time will tell if lab-grown meat will follow in plant-based meat’s footsteps or carve a direction of sustaining a presence here in Singapore.

• Read other articles we’ve written on Singaporean businesses here.

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Filed Under: daily deal

Whether you’re interested in background music for your next party or you’re looking to upgrade a stereo system, there’s a speaker set ready for you. Speakers tend to be designed with a specific purpose in mind. For example, you might need speakers for your TV, computer speakers or a set for a specific room. Or perhaps you need portable Bluetooth speakers to take on a trip. There’s a speaker for every situation.

from the taking-an-interest dept

In the last few years, the Supreme Court has been paying a lot more attention to the internet than it ever has before, and the cases keep on coming. This is already having a big impact on how the internet functions, and it doesn’t look likely to stop any time soon. Given all that, this week our own Cathy Gellis joins the podcast for a discussion all about the past, present, and future of SCOTUS and the internet.

You can also download this episode directly in MP3 format.

Follow the Techdirt Podcast on Soundcloud, subscribe via Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or grab the RSS feed. You can also keep up with all the latest episodes right here on Techdirt.

Filed Under: podcast, scotus, supreme court

Ryan Beiermeister, who served as OpenAI’s vice president of product policy, was fired in January after a male colleague accused her of sex discrimination, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

“The allegation that I discriminated against anyone is absolutely false,” Beiermeister told the Journal. TechCrunch reached out to OpenAI for comment and also contacted an email that appears to be associated with Beiermeister; neither had responded at the time of publication.

Per the Journal’s report, Beiermeister’s termination came after she expressed criticism of a planned ChatGPT feature dubbed “adult mode.” The new mode would introduce erotica into the chatbot user experience. Fidji Simo, who serves as OpenAI’s CEO of Applications — a role overseeing the company’s consumer-facing products — has told reporters that the new feature is planned to launch during the first quarter of this year.

Beiermeister and others at the company have raised concerns about how the new “adult” feature could potentially impact certain users, according to the report.

OpenAI reportedly said that Beiermeister, who was fired following a leave of absence, had “made valuable contributions during her time at OpenAI, and her departure was not related to any issue she raised while working at the company.” 

Beiermeister’s LinkedIn profile says she previously worked for four years on Meta’s product team and spent more than seven years working for Palantir.

While Android beta testers were exploring the newly-launched Android 16 QPR3 Beta 2.1, Google decided to surprise everyone. The official Android Beta Program handle on Reddit has confirmed the arrival of Android 17 Beta 1, and it’s coming sooner than you’d think.

“We are looking forward to our next Beta program cycle that covers our Android 17 Platform Release (26Q2),” says Google. It says the upcoming update will build on the Android 16 QPR platform release and include the “latest bug fixes and improvements.”

A surprise at the end of the cycle

The timing isn’t exactly shocking, as Android 16 QPR3 Beta 2.1 is the last update in the cycle. What’s unique, however, is Google’s route. Instead of pushing Android 17 via the Developer Preview stage, the company is jumping straight into the first beta.

Current beta testers (those enrolled in the Android Beta Program with an eligible Pixel smartphone) will automatically receive the Android 17 update once it goes live (which could be sometime in the coming weeks).

On the one hand, it’s good that Google is seeding the Android 17 update promptly to beta testers, making the initial build available for a wider testing audience.

The fine print beta testers shouldn’t ignore

However, once testers upgrade to Android 17 Beta 1, they won’t be able to roll back to the previous stable version until the cycle ends (which would be around June 2026) without wiping their device.

Anyways, that also implies that Google is planning to release the stable Android 17 version around the same time. Regular users should expect the major Android update to hit their Pixel devices in or around June 2026.

As for what’s new in Android 17 Beta 1? Google hasn’t spilled the beans yet. Even so, we expect to see the usual early-beta performance improvements and software refinements, sprinkled with a couple of visual adjustments.