How Serene Lim is turning dense urban space into high-yield, nutrient-rich food supply.
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Show Notes:
On Mission Matters, Adam Torres interviews Serene Lim, CEO & Co-Founder of Keshet Agritech, on scaling vertical farms that produce ~3,000 tons/year across 50+ crops, cutting middlemen to improve nutrition and affordability, and partnering with public and private stakeholders to secure urban food systems.
About Serene Lim
Serene has over 12 years of experience bridging capital to impactful projects & deals, managing institutional client relationships, & financial assets, driving global sustainability initiatives. She has lived and worked across key Asia Pacific hubs, and was a national athlete for Singapore for several years. With Keshet’s vision to transform the global food system, Serene is committed to stewarding key resources – food, energy, water, land, intelligence and health – creating hope for the future.
About Keshet Agritech
Keshet Agritech is a visionary, innovative, and pioneering startup in agriculture. Rooted in Singapore and inspired by real urban constraints, we are reshaping the rules of food production — building the foundations for a new era of urban food security.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to walk you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest on the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, so I have Serene Lim on the line and she’s CEO and co-founder over at Keshet.
Agritech and today’s interview is part of our Asia Summit series, where we bring you the best of entrepreneurs, participants, panelists, speakers, and all of the above that attended the Asia Summit in Singapore, which if you’ve been listening to this that’s hosted by the Milken Institute. If you’ve been listening to this series, then you’re aware I’m, this is.
First time going out there and I will be back. I had such a great time. It was also during F1 week happened right after. And not only was the area amazing, the conference was amazing, the conversations were amazing. And again, my next guest serene. So first off, serene, welcome to the show.
Finally, I got you here. Adam, it’s a pleasure to be here with you on Mission Matters. So Serena, we got a lot to talk about here today. I wanna get into, of course, Keshet, what you’re doing over at Keshet, agritech and also and really getting into the, food supply, talking about the global food systems, and we’ll do a deep dive into that.
But before we do all that let’s talk about the conference a bit here. So this was my first time, as you just heard at the Asia Summit Conference, we’ve been covering the Beverly Hills. Global conference at, for Milken for, I don’t know, four or five years, something like that. So we’ve done hundreds of interviews there, but this was my first time heading outta the country and exploring, and I had an amazing time.
So, tell me your background. Like, what’s your connection to the conference, the institute, like gimme your backstory there. How’d you discover it? Yes, Adam. So I had an invitation from Milken to join this year’s summit. And, this is the 12th year that.
their, and they convened about a hundred, 1,200 delegates from 45 countries. Mm-hmm. So it know really a very, very special strategic meeting really covering key topics like finance, health, science, technology, regional development, and, know philanthropy, right? Mm-hmm. Um, What’s really special, you know, I feel, is that while the world is.
fracturing, you know, leaders need to come together to commit themselves to helping the world. And so Milken has, has really done that. You know, over the last, you know, many years. was this your, I know you, you mentioned the, conference has been out there for 12 years now. Was this your. First year attending, or had you been in the past? I just wanted to make sure I caught that right. So I have been following the summit. Mm-hmm. But this is actually my first year physically participating in the summit.
Oh, that’s wonderful. I love asking because my, one of my goals in doing these interviews is I want more people to come. I want more people to participate from all around the world. And so, as a fir, I know you kind of knew about the conference before and knew the people, but your first year, a newbie, I say that with affection.
I was a newbie too. So this is both of our first years actually boots on the ground going like, what’d you think? Like, how was your, experience? Yeah. You know, Singapore is, a very interesting place because it actually hosts, you know, many different types of events. But I really felt like the American, summit brought together very high caliber leaders from different industries.
And you know, we, convened as, a group to cover. Key topics, but also the connections that we form, kind of one-on-one, especially in the private sessions, it really gave, you know, participants a chance to, understand really the, stories that sometimes, you know, we don’t get to hear in, public.
So the private round table sessions in particular were very useful for me, you know, covering, for example, China or women in leadership where we had 20 room, 20 women actually in a room. Really kind of talking through the, struggles and the successes that we’ve had together. And for example, how do each of us use AI in our businesses, in our lives today?
And really kind of helping one another on, in a journey as we lead, you know, our own respective organizations. Hmm. I wanna switch it up just a bit here, sere. let’s move our focus a bit on Te Keshet. Agritech. First off what does keshe mean? Help me with that one.
Yeah, so Khe actually means rainbow in, Hebrew and mm. You know, the reason why we named the company Khe back in 2014 was we do want this organization to be a, a hope, you know, in times of need. And we also have a co-founder who is his name is Avi. He has a daughter who’s, whose name is Khe as well.
So, you know, we kind of thought, you know, it, it represents both very symbolic, topics. So yeah, cash at tech, that’s our name. And let’s go a little bit further into, the firm and also I see the, title co-founder here. Like what inspired this, I mean, lots of different things, entrepreneurs and yourself.
I mean, how these skills can do, like how did you know this was gonna be the, idea you wanted to pursue? Yeah, great question Adam. So, you know Singapore is a very, successful city. In fact, we are, you know, widely regarded as really one of the most successful global cities in the world.
Mm-hmm. And we are ranked highly in, you know, global competitive. Economic performance, business efficiency and infrastructure. It is also noted for its effective governance and long-term urban planning innovation. and, but you know, one of the things we really haven’t quite solved is the issue of producing enough food for ourselves locally, right?
So. To provide some context, we currently import about 90% of our food from about 180 countries. And like, other urban cities in the world you know, this is kind of the stats that you’re looking at, but, I think probably more acute for Singapore because we are very, very small.
And so, you know, the land is just really very. Precious, we have to use it very, very carefully. We used to have about 10% of the land dedicated for farming. Today’s less than 1%. So you know this in the context of this, mm-hmm. Situation in Singapore, we really, our heart was really to.
Provide food for our neighbors in Singapore. So this started off, with, son, one of our co-founders really wanting to do this out of a small HDB flat. So the HDB is basically a government housing, right? Mm-hmm. And the, space that she had was a tree by tree meter room. And so this was it was really built from a tree by tree meter kind of greenhouse.
Wow. Yeah. And then it really grew, what an amazing story. Three by three’s not that big. Continue, please. I’m just blown away. It’s amazing. Go ahead. Yes. And, and so, you know, from a tree by tree meter, really dream it, it then became a, now 20,000 square meters. Wow. Land been awarded in Singapore by the government.
Wow. That’s absolutely amazing. what is that? first off, that’s an amazing story to grow from that footprint to, as large as it’s affecting now. But can you give a little bit of context into like what kind of food that can produce and what the actual impact of having that much space is doing.
Yeah, so we can actually grow about 50 different types of crops with our vertical farm just because of the way we have designed it and interior systems that will be able to support that high level, productivity and also yield and quality. So we are gonna be reproduce about 3000 tons. Per year of crops and, We have chosen to really focus on the high value herbs, and mushrooms and, we’re also looking at a vegetable protein that’s really going to be able to change the way that we feed the world because of the extreme high level of proteins and nutrients. Mm-hmm. So, um. yeah, you know, over the next six months we are looking to really start to operationalize in, Singapore, we’ve actually had two prototypes in Israel.
And, you know, we’ve grown various different types of crops there, but, you know, Singapore’s just a really different environment. So we’ve had to rebuild, and redesign our structure so we can actually solve for the various. Challenges, you know, in, the city like land price, you know, electricity and water cost, labor cost, even the climate, right?
Mm-hmm. Because we are near equator, you know, it’s a very high level of UV radiation. And what this does is it really affects the, the integrity of the materials that we, we used to build vertical farm, so we had to, you know, actually build the first ever stainless steel 3 1 6 pressurized infrastructure.
for vertical farming in Singapore, and in fact, I would think the world actually. Wow, that’s amazing. you mentioned some of the crops and you mentioned like the, the high value crops that you’re choosing. I’m curious, and I obviously when you were deciding and your team is deciding on what to focus on um, you’re going through like what, the current landscape is.
how do you make those choices? Like is it, price, is it. Quantity, quality of food? Is it demand supply? I’m sure it’s a bunch of things, but I’m just trying, I don’t wanna put words in your mouth, but like in general, like how do you make the choice on what direction to go? I love the question, Adam.
Yeah. So you know. We have to produce what the world wants. Mm. Right. You know, you, you can’t be like, oh, I love this batch, or I love this crop and therefore I’m need do it. Yeah. We need to understand, first of all, what is it that the market needs? Mm-hmm. and then we make sure that we can meet, that basic kind of cost structure and, because you need to be commercially viable. Right. You know farms today, we’re not, we’re not NGOs. We need to be commercially viable. And that’s one of the big issues that, you know, any vertical farms in the world today is facing. How do you continue to be sustainable from your operations? And then the third thing I’ll mention is really that nutritional value.
You know, for us, we want to be in the market to provide people with nutrition for them to live well. So that’s, a very important value that we hold. And anything that we produce, we have to want to eat it ourselves. Mm-hmm. And today, I, I realize there are some of the farm farmers out there, because what happens is that the, value chain is very extended, right?
So there’s a lot of middlemen. And, you know, what happens is that in, you know, for some farmers, their role is just to produce food and they pass it on to the next person or the next kind of, you know, kind of stakeholder value chain end. It doesn’t, it doesn’t matter to them how the food tastes. It doesn’t matter how much nutrients there is inside, because really they, they just need to get it passed to the next mm-hmm.
Middleman, right? So we are different. We, we wanna make sure that, you know, we, kind of own the whole value chain so we can pick out the middleman, take out the cost, and so, we wanna produce food affordably for our consumers, our end consumers. Hmm. can you maybe go a little bit more into that, in that chain?
Like who, controls, and, I mean, this might be a broad question and I’m sure it changes per market, but who controls then or who owns the food supply in like that chain? Like how does that work? Yeah, so, you know, in Asia there are. There, there is a very large percentage of small holder farmers.
Mm-hmm. So what, what we’re seeing in the world today is that, you know, they are not able to, you know, meet the cost structure of operating the business because they don’t have skill. Mm-hmm. Right? And if you take a look at, you kind of zoom out into that global landscape. Let’s take a look at. Who or what is really controlling food supply.
Right. So let’s, let’s start with seeds, because that’s where everything begins. Seeds. Mm-hmm. You know, there are about four companies in the world that control 50 to 60% of the world seed. Right? And so that means you actually reduce that variety. But also, you know, that that kind of what type of, you know, seeds are being used to grow our food and mm-hmm.
The cost as well, you know, will be really. Determined by the fore players. That’s one. The second thing is on the food industry giants in today, that’s Nestle, Unilever, Cargill. Just a few. You mentioned a few. And they actually own hundreds of F brands locally. Right? So they’re, in a processing, production distribution line.
Mm-hmm. And I give you an example from a geography like in uk. Yeah, okay. There are probably three to four supermarket chains that control more than 60% of the market. So this ultimately reduces really that kind of bargaining power for producers and consumers. And I think the last thing I’ll mention, because I was from banking before, is that, you know, really who, owns, these companies?
They’re really, you know, that. Few asset management firms that that are key short key shareholders across many of these firms. So in terms of decision making mm-hmm. It probably will be pretty similar. You know, you know how they actually run the firms. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get that. And this is where As Keshet Agritech, you know, continues to grow as the footprint continues to expand. It’s interesting to me to see how really innovators in this space increase. And I’ll, I’ll just say this for myself. I’m not gonna put words in your mouth, but like, I’ll say it for myself. When I think about just the food and access to food and quality of food, like I’m a big fan of new concepts coming out because I understand that maybe some of the old.
Let’s just say, I don’t know, distribution channels or way of producing, they were, you know, maybe at times made to maximize, you know, output and decrease costs at what cost, who knows, right? But now with other, entrepreneurs like yourself and your co-founder and other individuals that are also looking at the quality of things, I just feel like access to good food is gonna benefit us all, like in the future.
And in theory, enough access to good foods will kind of, you know, weed out the things that maybe aren’t. Quite always in our favor, you know? You know. Absolutely. And Adam, I think that there are two really key points that I wanna make sure that our audience actually takes away from this conversation.
Right? And the first is, you know, food really is everyone’s business because mm-hmm. It, major factor impact impacting, you know, our quality of life and our health span. Yeah. So also depends between lifespan and health spend, right? You know, lifespans really how long you live. But health spend is how long you live in good health.
And that’s actually a gap. And the gap comes from really what kind of food, you know, do we take, when we are young? Because for example, if you don’t give a child essential nutrients in the formative stages, the first thousand days of their, life, at least to long term stunting, you know, impact.
For growth, whereas for elderly, right? If you don’t actually give them good food, they start to have, you know, kind of muscle wasting and weakened immune system. And then just for people like you and I, you know, we don’t have enough good food. We just are feeling, you know, lethargic for the day. Right.
Versus being just. How would, and, you know, energize for our you know, kind of daily tasks. So it is really everyone’s business. And the second point really is the security and sustainability of the agri food system we’re in today is really increasingly fragile. And As, you know, more and more people move out to live in urban cities versus the rural cities.
How is the urban infrastructure in the world today going to be able to feed, you know, our people, our population in a sustainable way? Mm-hmm. So I think these two points are very important for people to keep in mind when we think about this topic of, food and, and solutions really to solve.
Yeah. I love it. Serene, this has been a lot of fun having you on the show today and getting to know more about your work and also to getting my skills up and what’s going on in food. And hopefully I’ll see you next year at the Asia Summit. ’cause I will be back. I’m sure.
That being said if somebody wants to follow up, I know we just kind of scratched the, scratched the surface on some of the things that you have to offer. What’s going on over at Keshet Agritech? If somebody wants to follow up and learn more, how do they do that? Yep. You can find us [email protected] app agritech.com.
We do have you know, interests, you know, for partnership from players in US, Euro, middle East, and Asia. You know, if you wanna partner with us to, really take off our, produce if you’re a major food ingredient in the manufacturing company, contractors us. If you’re a capital provider who wants to really build boli, you know, with us.
In Singapore and expanding outwards, please do So. Our vision really is to, you know, create that ecosystem where we have private and public sector partnerships to create solid food supply in every city possible. And, yeah, that’s what I’ll see, Adam. Awesome. Well, again, thank you so much for coming on.
It really has been a pleasure. It’s been a lot of fun. And to the audience as always, thank you for tuning in. If this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button. This is a daily show, each and every dear, bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey as well.
So again, hit that subscribe or follow button and reen. Thanks again for coming on. Thank you, Adam.
