{"id":3990,"date":"2023-07-01T06:47:55","date_gmt":"2023-07-01T06:47:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-alumn-nus.pantheonsite.io\/alumnus\/?p=3990"},"modified":"2025-07-15T16:07:57","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T08:07:57","slug":"when-ideas-bear-fruit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/2023\/07\/01\/when-ideas-bear-fruit\/","title":{"rendered":"When Ideas Bear Fruit"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Dr Bao Shengjie is the founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer of Singrow, a local agri-genomics firm that has made a splash in the industry for developing climate-resistant strawberries. Thanks to its technology, this ruby-red fruit can now be grown in warmer climates like Singapore without the need for intensive cooling, boosting the Republic\u2019s\u00a0food security and reducing the carbon footprint needed to import it.<\/p>\n

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When Dr Bao Shengjie looks back on his childhood in Zhejiang, China, he recalls many happy hours spent in his mother\u2019s garden, which was home to a variety of flowering plants, herbs and vegetables. \u201cNaturally, these would attract insects and bugs. Being afraid of them, she would task me to clear them and look after the plants,\u201d recalls Dr Bao. \u201cWe also experienced different seasons and every few months, the garden would bloom with new flowers. It was fascinating for a kid to experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That early exposure to horticulture has come full circle today: Dr Bao is now the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer at Singrow, a local agri-genomics firm that has been in the news lately for developing the world\u2019s first climate-resilient strawberry variety, grown in Singrow\u2019s farm at Science Park, which serves as its research and development hub. While strawberries usually grow in cooler climes of between 5 to 15 degrees Celsius, Singrow\u2019s variety thrives anywhere between 20 and 28 degrees Celsius \u2014 perfect for hot locales like Singapore, and also a warming world. This was done by cross-breeding and modifying the genetics of the strawberry, creating a variety that has adapted well to warmer climate conditions. The breakthrough has great implications for food security and the world\u2019s carbon emissions, says Dr Bao. \u201cIt can be applied to many other crops in the future. We are already experimenting with crops like rice, corn, sustainable palm oil and other staple vegetables, and seeing how these can be grown in new regions to strengthen food security.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Take saffron, for example. This spice is highly favoured in Middle Eastern and South Asian cooking, but close to 95 per cent of it is grown in one country: Iran. According to Dr Bao, this makes its supply and quality unstable. \u201cIn our case, we are able to grow the saffron under a controlled environment,\u201d he says, adding this could halve the harvest time for saffron to about four months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Singrow\u2019s breakthrough was the result of advanced genomics technology that leverages a deep understanding of plant genomes. Dr Bao cultivated this understanding throughout his time in school. \u201cI spent most of my education studying about plants, all the way from high school.\u201d That journey culminated in an opportunity to pursue a PhD in molecular biology from NUS. \u201cIt was a chance to work with Professor Yu Hao, a renowned name in science,\u201d explains Dr Bao. Prof Yu Hao is the Provost\u2019s Chair Professor and Head of Department at the Department of Biological Sciences at the University\u2019s Faculty of Science.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Dr Bao with Mr Alvin Tan (Minister of State for the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, and the Ministry of Trade & Industry) at Singrow\u2019s official farm opening ceremony on 11 April 2023.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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PLOTTING HIS OWN PATH<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr Bao\u2019s stellar achievements at NUS pretty much guaranteed him a promising career in academia, complete with tenure at top universities. \u201cBut to my parents\u2019 dismay, I decided that I wanted to pursue entrepreneurship instead. For Asian parents, a professorship is a very stable and honourable career path. My mother couldn\u2019t imagine why I would want to give that up, but\u00a0after some time, she came around to realising\u00a0the impact that entrepreneurship could make.\u201d

But to Dr Bao, it was an easy decision. He felt that entrepreneurship was one way of bringing his research to life. \u201cI remember walking through the supermarket and being amazed by the variety of fruits and vegetables on sale here. But upon closer inspection, I found that much of the produce was actually from thousands of miles away \u2014 including strawberries, which I love to eat. That\u2019s when I realised there could be a huge market need for a greater variety of produce grown locally. Entrepreneurship was the way to meet this need.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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We are already experimenting with crops like rice, corn, sustainable palm oil and other staple vegetables, and seeing how these can be grown in new regions to strengthen food security.<\/h5>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Having trained as an academic doesn\u2019t necessarily prepare one for the rigours of entrepreneurship, however. \u201cI knew there was a huge difference between the two roles,\u201d says Dr Bao. To tackle this, he turned to NUS once again, relying on its Graduate Research Innovation Programme (GRIP) to shore up his business skills. This comprehensive programme provides participants with the knowledge and skills necessary to get a startup up and running. Support extends to industry link-ups and funding as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cMy partner and I were in the second cohort and through the programme, we received solid training in skills like venture creation, market validation and fundraising skills,\u201d he shares. \u201cWe learnt how to tell a brand story and build a business model that would appeal to investors, clients and partners.\u201d With the training and networks built through GRIP, they gained quick recognition in the field and were able to secure their first seed investments fairly swiftly. Part of Dr Bao\u2019s success also lay in his clear vision for Singrow and the need it would address. \u201cIt definitely helped to have this clear vision before we embarked on our journey,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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SINGROW IN NUMBERS\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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  • \"\"comprising of researchers, engineers and indoor farm operations personnel.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n
  • Currently working on\u00a030 crop varieties, including rice, palm oil, saffron, cherry tomatoes and some types of leafy vegetables.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  • Singrow will work with partners to help them reduce their fertiliser use by\u00a030 per cent\u00a0and pesticide use by\u00a070 per cent.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  • While the Singrow farm can produce up to\u00a0500kg\u00a0of strawberries monthly, its current focus is to grow seedlings in their nursery space. Through its partner farms in Malaysia and Thailand farms, production will be increased by\u00a0100 times.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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    A LABOUR OF LOVE<\/strong><\/p>\n

    That journey continues in earnest today. Dr Bao says that his firm\u2019s farms in Singapore can provide produce to hotels and online consumers, but to truly scale up, he is looking at the region. This means working with larger farms in neighbouring Malaysia and Thailand to ramp up supply. \u201cWe will provide outdoor farms with our crop varieties so they can grow these crops,\u201d he explains. There are also plans to work with these farms to improve their farming techniques so that fertiliser and pesticide use is greatly reduced \u2014 by 30 and 70 per cent respectively.\u00a0

    These successes are certainly welcome. But the one that matters most to Dr Bao is the difference his team is making in the community. \u201cIt would be very gratifying to see local communities being able to enjoy homegrown strawberries at an affordable price,\u201d he shares. Singrow\u2019s strawberries currently retail for about $20 a pack, compared to strawberries from Japan, which are sold from $35 to $50 a pack. The community he is impacting includes his own young son. \u201cWhen I presented my first strawberry harvest from the lab to my family, my son finished the whole box of strawberries,\u201d he told CNA earlier this year. \u201cSo I realised I\u2019m doing something meaningful for society.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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    Main photo by Alvin Teo<\/h6>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A childhood love for horticulture has bloomed into a successful and game-changing enterprise by Dr Bao Shengjie (Science \u201917).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7641,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-startups"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3990"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7642,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3990\/revisions\/7642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}