When most kids rebel against their families, they might become a ski bum, join a band, or go to art school. Shen Ming Lee decided to start a company.
“I grew up in the conventional palm oil industry,” Lee told TechCrunch. “My family’s business is one of the top producers in the palm oil space. And so I grew up a little bit — I have to admit —ashamed of what my family does.”
Palm oil has come to dominate the market for vegetable oils, with the raw ingredient and its derivatives appearing in everything from snack foods and cosmetics to pharmaceuticals and biofuels. But along the way, it has deforested vast swaths of the tropics, especially in Southeast Asia.
The germ of Lee’s startup, Terra Oleo, emerged in 2022 when she met co-founder Boon Uranukul, who, as a doctoral candidate at MIT, had developed microbes that could produce building blocks of plastics using agricultural waste.
“I really had this desire to build something that was maybe going to build on my family’s legacy, but in a way that was more in line with my values as a Gen Z, sustainability-leading person,” Lee said. “We got thinking about what we could do differently, matching his expertise with my connections and strategic network.”
The Singapore-based startup has been operating in stealth for nearly two years to develop microbes that can transform agricultural waste into a variety of oils.
Terra Oleo has raised $3.1 million from ADB Ventures, Better Bite Ventures, Elev8.vc, The Radical Fund, a strategic corporate investor from the palm oil industry, and other investors, the startup exclusively told TechCrunch. Lee and Uranukul are also part of this year’s Breakthrough Energy Fellows cohort.
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