Daily Briefing: Plant-based meat startup Next Gen raises $13.28m; Two adjoining sites at Still Road, Koon Seng Road on sale for $21m

And government adopts calibrated approach in balancing heritage preservation.

From e27:

Next Gen, a Singapore-headquartered plant-based foodtech startup, announced that it has closed a $13.28m (US$10m) seed round from a clutch of investors, including Temasek and K3 Ventures.

The New Ventures arm of the Singapore Economic Development Board, NX Food, FEBE Ventures, and Blue Horizon also participated.

According to data from Pitchbook, this deal marks the largest-ever seed round raised for a plant-based foodtech company.

According to Next Gen, the fresh financing will be used for the global launch of its plant-based chicken consumer brand TiNDLE in Singapore, scheduled for March 2021. A portion of the capital will also go towards fuelling expansion efforts across Asia and supporting R&D of new plant-based products.

Read more here. 

From PropertyGuru:

Two adjoining sites at 97 & 99 Still Road and 137 Koon Seng Road have been put up for sale via tender with a combined guide price of $21m, revealed exclusive marketing agent CBRE.

This works out to around $960 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr), “subject to confirmation of development charges payable on combination of the two sites.”

97 & 99 Still Road is occupied by 29-room Malacca Hotel, whilst 137 Koon Seng Road houses a two-storey residential block used as a workers’ quarters as well as Malacca Hotel’s administrative office.

To be sold as a bundle, the two sites are strategically situated at the junction of Koon Seng Road and Still Road. They have a total area of around 14,661 sq ft and are zoned for residential use under the 2019 Master Plan with a plot ratio of 1.4.

Read more here. 

From PropertyGuru:

With built heritage strengthening Singaporeans’ sense of identity and history, the government takes a consultative and calibrated approach in balancing heritage preservation and the city-state’s development needs.

“As a small city-state, we need to balance the importance of our built heritage with the need to develop and renew our cityscape to meet current and future needs,” said the Ministry of National Development (MND) in a written reply to Parliament on 25 February.

Currently, a systematic framework is in place to incorporate heritage consideration in the planning and development process.

“Every development proposal is subject to a robust planning evaluation process that considers the development’s impact on traffic, public health, environment, as well as built heritage,” explained MND.

It was responding to MP Leon Perera’s question on whether the government will introduce a mandatory heritage impact assessment regime for sites deemed of heritage value by a reasonable number of nonprofit organisations or members of the public when such sites are proposed for redevelopment or change in land use.

Read more here.