All over the world, the vegetarian movement is growing in popularity. More people than ever are choosing to give up animal products in favor of plant-based alternatives.
According to The Plant Business Journal الأعمال vegan expertSingapore has quickly become a ‘vegetarian haven’, and has been named the second most vegetarian-friendly Asian city by PETA Asia.
Despite this, searching for vegetarian or vegan food options in Singapore can still be stressful. Although the vegetarian-friendly options in Singapore are steadily expanding, consumers may still struggle to find these restaurants.
Vikas Garg, founder and CEO of Abillion, recognized these challenges. The entrepreneur grew up in a vegan home, and despite living in New York City, the options were limited.
“I mostly eat a lot of dairy and pizza and things like that. It was always a challenge when going to restaurants and having to ask questions about food. It got even more difficult when I became a vegetarian,” Vikas said.
He made the decision to start a vegan diet after realizing that some of the advertisements surrounding the health benefits of including dairy products in the diet might not have been as honest as he thought.
On top of that, this was also around the time he got his dog, and the emotional bond he forged with his pet made him think more deeply about the impact of how a vegetarian could be more beneficial to the environment.
Final decision to launch One billion Hence he felt it was natural, as he wanted to create a platform that would help people make an easy and natural transition to making more sustainable food choices.
Review vegetarian dishes from around the world
formerly abilionveg, abillion is a user-led platform that encourages people to share reviews of dishes or vegan products, with the ultimate goal of using user-generated content to create an ecosystem of plant-based movement.
Vikas made the decision to resign from his corporate role in January 2017, and launched abillionveg a few months later. He previously attended a coding bootcamp, where he felt it would be helpful to understand the basics of how the platform works.
He then selected two of the best students in the same bootcamp, and the three of them started building the initial website, which was launched in November 2017.
In addition to the platform for sharing vegan food and restaurant reviews, abillion has grown into an ecosystem of more than 350,000 users from over 140 countries.
The team rebranded from abillionveg to abillion to meet the needs of its growing community.
Today, 65 percent of its members are carnivores and resilient animals, and the team is seeing greater diversity in its audience. However, the common denominator is their interest in sustainability.
“We have recognized that we are not only serving a vegan community but a global community of conscious consumers and we are rapidly evolving to better serve them,” Vikas said.
The team works to create a community of conscious, inclusive consumers who strive to be sustainable in all aspects of their lives, be it beauty, fitness, retail and general living.
Since 2018, abillion has raised $7 million in funding. Of the US$7 million, US$2 million was raised in its initial tour, which broke records as the largest seed tour for a vegan startup that year in Singapore.
The startup is currently running Series A funding with a goal of raising $10-15 million by the end of July.
Turning social media into a social benefit
For every review published, abillion gives its members $1 that they can donate to nearly 70 of the world’s most influential organizations that lead conservation, education, and diet change efforts.
According to Vikas, this helps users make a connection between their lifestyle choices and their impact on the world.
It also helped the team build their core base of 1 billion dedicated members, as well as expand the amount they donate naturally based on this growth.
To date, the platform has seen over 700,000 food reviews and 100,000 brand reviews, with more than $500,000 being donated to good causes.
Aside from food, users can also find vegan products like hair and skin products, all of which allow other vegan lovers to leave comments. This allows millions of users to perform a more accurate search.
Vikas told Vulcan Post that abellion has the “world’s most valuable and unique set of consumer data for sustainability,” which comes from 700,000 reviews.
The startup can then leverage this data set to help investors, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers identify market gaps and growth opportunities in the wave of socially responsible consumption.
It is also the first company to launch awards for vegan products and dishes based on real consumer data and preferences.
“We’re not telling the audience that something is number one based on the opinions of a small panel of celebrity judges; we’re giving someone a first place award based on thousands of data points based on real member feedback,” Vikas said.
The vegetable market is large and growing rapidly
According to Vikas, 2020 saw a “seismic shift in the conscious mindset of Singaporean consumers” which emerged with 2.5 times the number of users From the app in Singapore. Over 4,000 reviews of vegetarian dishes from the Singaporean landscape alone are published in the app.
As the economy in Singapore begins to recover from the pandemic, and users are allowed to visit more restaurants, one billion people have seen a growing interest in vegetarian dishes and alternatives among the Singaporean masses.
With the growing popularity of vegan meat alternatives such as Tindle, Karana and Impossible Foods, Singapore is experiencing an emerging vegan market and interest in vegan nutrition and dieting continues to grow.
Last year, Abillion released its Top 20 Botanic Cities report, and Singapore ranked second in the World Botanic Cities rankings. It is also one of the top four major markets for the app.
People all over the world are adopting plant-based diets, and there is a growing awareness of the environmental and personal benefits of a plant-based lifestyle. I also think the pandemic has been a wake-up call in this aspect – people are starting to see the necessity and the positivity behind making conscious decisions. Platforms like abillion have played an integral role in this new wave and we are proud to be a part of this growth to ensure a more sustainable tomorrow for all beings.
Vikas Garg, founder and CEO of Abillion
Currently, only millions of members can post reviews of vegetarian dishes and sustainable products. However, by the end of the quarter, there will be a billion plans in place to give members the ability to post anything they want.
This includes the opportunity to discuss anything sustainable, and share their ideas, photos, videos, recipes, and even article links.
These public posts are meant to start conversations about sustainability and bring society closer together.
As abillion is a global community that motivates people and companies to do what’s right for the planet, Vikas wants to be the world’s largest social media platform for sustainability.
To help us achieve this, one of its main priorities is to continue to become a toolkit for the next generation of entrepreneurs and business owners, who prioritize plant-based offerings.
With that in mind, the business dashboard will be launching in the coming months. This dashboard will help business owners deal with their growing conscious consumer base.
abillion will also launch a marketplace that will enable consumers to buy and brands to sell products directly from our platform.
We hope that these features will enable members to interact with each other and encourage them to be guiding forces in each other’s sustainable journeys. Our ultimate goal with abillion is to guide people in making social impact and sustainability a habit for everyone,” said Vikas.
Featured photo credit: abillion
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