KUALA LUMPUR: Folo Farms is the winner of The Venture Malaysia and will be the first representative for Malaysia at The Venture’s global finale in July to pitch for a share of US$1 million in prize money to fund its start-up.

Johor-based Folo Farms was founded by members of multiple families in 2015, including Tang Thian Yeong who returned home to Malaysia that year.

The composting comrades reduce the impact of over three tonnes of food waste on the environment everyday, returning life back to the soil.

Folo Farms aims to feed its community with organic, power-packed vegetables. The family-run firm composts three tonnes of food waste daily that would otherwise be dumped illegally or in open landfills around the country.

Tang shared with The Edge Financial Daily that the management team running the company is the biggest strength of Folo Farms.

“Our team has a very diverse range of talents. This team is bonded by 20 years of friendship and all our families are working together,” Tang said.

In his pitch, Tang shared some of the company’s expansion plans which include collaboration with developers to build more farming communities or Urban Farms, through product offerings such as organic products and refining urban farming techniques.

He added that currently, Folo Farms is in contact with three developers in Johor.

Ahead of the global finale, Tang will also attend The Venture’s Accelerator Week at Skoll Centre, Oxford University in UK in March, where the global finalists will take part in intensive business master classes and receive expert mentoring from some of the biggest and most influential names in the business.

The Malaysian chapter of The Venture made its debut last September and concluded in an exciting finale last night. The Venture is Chivas Regal’s global competition to find and support the most pioneering, promising social enterprises from across the world that want to succeed while creating positive change for their communities.

The Malaysia finale, held at Glasshouse in Kuala Lumpur, saw the three shortlisted Malaysian enterprises namely DID MY Innovations, Folo Farms and The Batik Boutique pitch their cases to an expert panel of jury including Malaysian Global Innovation & Creative Centre vice president of social entrepreneurship Ehon Chan, The Edge Communications Sdn Bhd publisher and group chief executive officer Ho Kay Tat, BFM89.9 radio channel The Enterprise Show producer and presenter Freda Liu, and Pernod Ricard Malaysia managing director Sebastien Mouquet.

The Venture first started in 2014 and is currently in its third year globally. This was the first competition in Malaysia. The competition was launched in 32 countries including Malaysia across six continents.