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elieve it or not,
teenage angst led
Vinesh Sinha, CEO
of FatHopes Energy
and our Gen.T 2019
honouree, to discover
his career path. “I fi rst
discovered biodiesel after watching Jeremy
Clarkson fuel a red, diesel Mercedes with used
cooking oil in an episode of Top Gear. At the
time I was driving an old Pajero and wanted
to try it out to save money. I managed to
create a blend of fuel made from cooking oil
that worked, so it started from there,” he said.
After his success, Vinesh began producing
this diesel substitute for himself, family
members and close friends in KL at their
request. However, it was only when he was
in the UK pursuing a degree in fi nance and
business that he was made aware of biofuel’s
potential as a business. “Malaysians may not
have heard about biofuel, but in the UK, it
was slated to be the next big thing when I was
living there,” he shares.
Curious, Vinesh signed up for part-time
work at a small biodiesel plant that converts
used cooking oil into fuel. This side hustle
soon became his lifelong passion; Vinesh
enjoyed learning about the trade from all
levels of the supply chain. Soon, he was
willingly skipping class in college so he can
fully pursue this newfound calling.
“Despite what people may think, my path in
biofuel was not as calculated as it now seems.
All I knew is, I fell in love with the biofuel
business over time and that kept me going,”
he says. Therefore, when Vinesh was offered a
contract to sell biofuel to a logistics company
in 2009, he decided immediately to quit
college, return to Malaysia, buy up a plant and
pursue entrepreneurship full-time.
Needless to say, his entire family was upset
by his choice. “My then-girlfriend Jane, who
is now my wife, was the only person who
believed in me when I embarked on this crazy
adventure to start up FatHopes,” says Vinesh.It’s been a decade of ups and downs for entrepreneur
Vinesh Sinha but he is confident the best is yet to come
for his waste-oil-to-energy company, FatHopesFuelled to Win
WORDS: LILY ONG; PHOTOGRAPHY: KHAIRUL IMRAN
He knew the odds were stacked against
him, but he was determined to give
entrepreneurship a shot. “If I was going to
fail, I wanted to fail early in life rather than
later. But me being who I am, I refused let
failure be an option. I was determined to
make FatHopes work so I can prove to my
family—and myself—that the biofuel business
is worth hedging all of my bets on,” he says.
Judging by FatHopes’ booming business
today, this gritty young man is certainly on
the right track. His company is conquering
huge market share in the biofuels industry,
with clients including cafes and restaurants
such as McDonald’s, Aeon Big and Souled Out.
Altogether, an estimate of 150 million kg of
waste oil has been converted to biofuel under
FatHopes’ system—across many levels of the
F&B supply chain.
“I am now focused on ensuring that
FatHopes is a multi-bottomline business that
is focused not only on the economics but
also the society and environment as well. We
are fortunate that the biofuel we produce is
70 per cent cleaner in terms of the carbon
equivalent emission it emits. Also, our work
ensures that unhealthy used animal and
vegetable oils are not put back for human
consumption,” he reveals candidly.
Such is the value of Vinesh’s organisation
that a 20 per cent stake in the company was
recently taken by a large European oil and gas
company. With the next phase of growth on
the cards, Vinesh is ready take FatHopes to
the next level.
On a personal basis, Vinesh is at a stage in
his life where he wants to be more balanced
in managing his life and business. “As a
young entrepreneur, I am used to being a
workaholic; I recently suffered a heart
attack. That was a wake-up call for me,
as my wife and I are parents to two young
toddlers. I want to be a better father,
husband and businessman for them—and
this desire sustains me today,” concludes
Vinesh with fervour.CLOSE-UP | FACES