IncreBio (formerly known as JuiceInnov8), a Bangkok-based food biotech company that produce juices, has announced the inaugural launch of INCREDIBLE Juice, a Near Zero Sugar juice.
The company aims to revolutionize juice — a $150 billion market and the world’s third largest drink — a category lacking no/low sugar alternatives until now. While juice has been exposed for its notorious levels of sugar akin to a can of Coke and a cup of bubble tea, IncreBio is poised to challenge that status quo with its proprietary technology that can create a Near Zero Sugar juice at a sugar level even lower than those found in skimmed milk.
The company targets to launch two variants of its Near Zero Sugar Juice in the fourth quarter this year, according to a statement. INCREDIBLE Orange Juice and Apple Juice, with 70 percent of natural sugar removed, will be the market’s lowest sugar and calorie juice, the company said. Its sugar content per serve will be even lower than a glass of plain milk, and it will be the sole truly healthier juice brand that can achieve Nutri-Grade B.
As new regulations are set to extend the Nutri-grade label to food services and freshly prepared drinks by the end of 2023, INCREDIBLE views this as an opportunity.
This commercial announcement in Singapore followed a limited-offering launch in Bangkok through a pop-up store and selected food services. The company sold and served its revolutionary Near Zero Sugar juices to over 8,000 consumers in December 2022.
This decision to pick Singapore as its debut is a toast to Singapore’s trailblazing role in the global food innovation movement, from pioneering the world’s first cultivated chicken to animal-free dairy made with precision fermentation.
“Singapore also leads the way in promoting healthier consumption habits among its citizens, thanks to the Nutri-grade labeling policy enforced by the Health Promotion Board,” said Sean Trairatkeyoon, Founder & Chief Executive Officer of IncreBio.
IncreBio is one of the first venture-backed food biotech startups in Asia. The company has raised over $2 million from 500 Global, TOP Ventures (CVC-arm of Thai Oil PLC) and angel investors—from a group of former executives of Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Dole, to a family office of one of the largest healthcare networks in Southeast Asia.
The company is now aiming to close Series-A financing round by the end of 2023 as its building its own biomanufacturing site to facilitate the launch in Singapore and beyond.
After eight years of development, started with research collaboration with Chulalongkorn University before spins out to build its own biotech stack with a team of 25+ engineers & scientists. IncreBio holds the holy grail library of hundreds of natural sugar-reducing microbes—all isolated from plants, fruits and edible flowers. IncreBio’s natural strains were trained to specifically target natural sugar molecules in fruit juice from sucrose, fructose and glucose.
The company then developed a Natural Machine within a Machine, a proprietary fermentation platform that precisely controlled the pathway of sugar-reducing microbes (natural machine) within bioreactor (machine)—with the aim to let them eat all the sugar instead of us. Results? 99.7 percent natural sugar in juice were removed, all done without any genetic modifications, the company said.
The company stands as the sole commercially viable sugar reduction technology in juice at Near Zero Sugar level, with a proven industrial scale for orange and apple juice. This breakthrough earned INCREDIBLE Juice alongside cell-based chicken and dairy in Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas in 2021.