Bringing rapid, lab-grade diagnostics to the pond side

This article is a part of Startup Spotlight, a series that features young, up-and-coming startups.

Photo credit: Forte Biotech

Forte Biotech’s origin began with a personal story. Co-founder Kit Yong saw his uncle, a shrimp farmer, lose months of work to a single disease outbreak. Later, he and co-founder Michael Quang Minh heard the same story from farmers in Vietnam. Lab results always came back too late.

They built Forte Biotech to bring disease testing directly to the pond.

😟 Problem

Shrimp farms in Southeast Asia suffer huge losses from fast-moving diseases. White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) can destroy 100% of a pond’s stock in just three to 10 days.

Small and mid-size farms in remote areas are hit hardest. Traditional lab testing takes one to two days after a sample arrives. By then, an outbreak has already spread, forcing emergency harvests at low prices and wasting feed.

💡 Solution

Forte Biotech makes on-site molecular test kits for shrimp farmers. The firm’s RAPID test kits allow farmers to get clear positive or negative results for major diseases in about an hour, without needing a laboratory.

• The workflow is simple. A farmer mixes a water or shrimp sample in a buffer solution.
• They then extract the DNA and add it to reaction beads.
• Results guide immediate actions like quarantine, treatment, or harvest.

The RAPID test kit / Photo credit: Forte Biotech

📊 Market size

The global market for animal diagnostics is valued at US$7.8 billion annually. Disease risk in Asian aquaculture is rising due to farm intensification and climate change. This makes routine screening a necessity.

Regulators and buyers are also demanding stricter biosecurity and traceability. Field-ready molecular technology has now made on-farm testing both practical and affordable, creating a clear market need.

🤝 Team

• Kit Yong – co-founder. B.Sc in life science from National University of Singapore (NUS). He has seven years of business experience in Vietnam and Singapore and was named to Forbes 30 Under 30.
• Quang Minh Nguyen – co-founder. B.Sc in project and facilities management from NUS. He drives internal operations and product execution with five years of project management experience.
• Ou Chung-Pei – advisor. Ph.D in biotechnology from Imperial College London. He is a pioneer in next-generation sequencing.
• Matthew Tan – scientific advisory board. He serves as the Chair for Sustainable Development at the APEC Policy Partnership on Food Security.

🚀 Traction

• Over 90 customers are using RAPID kits across nine Asian countries.
• The company has sold more than 8,000 test kits to date.
• Early partners include Uni-President (Vietnam), JALA (Indonesia), and GST Group (Malaysia).
• Users have reported a ~22% production uplift and a ~9% revenue increase. Feed conversion ratio improved from 1.65 to 1.42.

🏆 Competition

💰 Financials