Our Founder's Story - Ken Koh
- May 18
- 6 min read
In 2003, Ken founded a training company. Over the next decade, he developed it into a leading service provider for innovation and entrepreneurship training programs for individuals, schools and enterprises. With a goal of overseas expansion, he joined Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO), a network of entrepreneurs around the world. He felt right at home as he found himself among like-minded entrepreneurial peers. Ken developed himself and grew his business as he led in various leadership roles in EO over the next decade. However, he discovered that business success alone was not what he was after.
While his business was bringing in the dough, he was experiencing an existential crisis. He asked himself what is the meaning of life. Beyond his role as a son, husband and father, what is the purpose of his living and is there something unique that he is meant to accomplish during his time on earth?
He eventually found the courage to exit his successful training business that he had built up painstakingly and pursue a new calling in life.
He decided to live again.
Ken entered his ailing family business - which was a traditional artisanal soy sauce maker founded in Singapore in 1959 by his maternal grandfather. What happened next was nothing short of life-changing.
The lifestyle, mindset and livelihood he had to make was transformational and his body got to keep up. He reduced socializing and cut alcohol from his life. Coffee was next to go as he realized it was keeping him up at night and he had to tend to the vats of fermenting soy sauces early in the morning. He learnt about the power of fermented foods and what fermentation does to break down proteins into metabolites. He always suspected his traditional soy sauce was healthier and different from the commercial brands but had no evidence.
Until one day, he got an unusual call from a scientist from A*star who had seen his media interview with CNA's On the Red Dot episode and asked for some of his fermenting soy beans to test.
Initially Ken thought nothing of it as the weeks went by until he received the results of the test. The soy beans were rich in anti-oxidants, had brightening effects and anti-aging properties! Off he went, down the rabbit hole and invested heavily in R&D and launched the very first fermented skincare brand - KITKOJI. An all-natural avant-garde skincare brand that balances your skin microbiome. It went viral right from the get-go and existing Nanyang Sauce customers became the original brand ambassadors of KITKOJI.
From there, X-Itch and X-Ache Creams by KITKOJI were formulated and developed, providing relief to tens of thousands of customers as Itching and Aching are 2 twin common human sufferings world-wide
For more information about KITKOJI, check out www.KITKOJI.com
Ken started his journey on Naturopathy and became obsessed with learning about functional foods, medicinal flora and secret fungi that could solve the world's problems.
A twist in the plot came when one day he received a call from a KITKOJI customer named Mark Holcombe from Australia who called in to enquire what was in the active ingredients of KITKOJI. To Ken's surprise, Mark said he asked so because his skin cancer had disappeared after using the serum. Mark's skin cancer doctor couldn't explain why and Ken decided to investigate.
Ken outreached to National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) to do some research on the active ingredients. The Director of Cancer Discovery Hub, Dr Jason Chan was initially sceptical but was visionary and bold enough to give it a shot. He and his team tested KITKOJI's Extract K on 3 types of assay cancer cell lines in the lab. All the cancer cells were killed. When Ken heard the results, he was stunned, as this could be a life-saver for cancer patients! However, he was soon brought down to earth by the medical research team as though these initial results are promising, it did not mean much as the key question was whether the Extract K could kill normal living cells or not, because it is pointless to kill both cancer and normal cells of humans!
However the initial results generated enough scientific curiousity on the NCCS team to propose signing a Research Collaboration Agreement (RCA) to explore further.
Over the next few years, Ken immersed himself in learning about the microbiome. He took adult night classes at Ngee Ann Polytechnic to get a certificate in Microbiology. Ken wanted to equip himself with scientific knowledge so that he could better understand the scientific lingo and methodologies while conversing with doctors and researchers.
Remission Biotech, a herbal remedy for skin was launched with a subsequent herbal remedy for our insides to boost our gut microbiome for our fight inside.
For more information about Remission Biotech, visit www.RemissionBiotech.com
The initial results of KITKOJI's first RCA turned out to be very promising and the lab mice treated with our proprietory Extract K saw their cancer tumours shrink by 40% in less than 3 weeks. This breakthrough discovery was published in the Straits Times and CNA. Remission Pharma Pte Ltd was founded as a result and it is currently on a second Research Collaboration Agreement (RCA) with National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) to understand how it works after establishing initial results that it has worked on 25 types of assay cancer cell lines and lab mice.
With a deeper understanding on how nature can influence our health for the better through the microbiome, Ken is a man on a mission. He wanted to discover how else environmental external microbiome can interact with our internal microbiome.
His discoveries led him to Borneo, the largest island in Asia with an isolated 130 million year old rainforest super rich in biodiversity that is not seen elsewhere and still inhabited by indigenous tribes. These communities inheritated a traditional wisdom of indigenous knowledge of the herbal remedies used by their ancestors.
Ken then contacted and visited Sarawak Biodiversity Centre – a Malaysian Government Statutory Body in charge of documentation, research & commercialization of indigenous knowledge of biological resources.
Upon the visit, he discovered that there were over 700 unique types of essential oils in their biodiversity library with amazing properties that enabled physical, emotional and mental well-being through aromatherapy that is an integral part of Naturopathy. These are not the usual commercial Lavender, Rosemary etc types of essential oils but something most of the world hasn't seen.
It was literally the treasure trove of a mysterious island and the brand "Trove Borneo" was conceived. An MOU was inked between KITKOJI and Sarawak Biodiversity Centre and the first 9 types of Trove Borneo Pure essential oils was identified. These herbs were then sustainably cultivated by the tribes and meticulously extracted by the researchers at Sarawak Biodiversity Centre.
Launch of Trove Borneo - a limited edition set of 9 pure essential oils from Borneo!
For more information about pure essential oils, visit www.TroveBorneo.com
Despite our modern day knowledge and diets, our body still lacks many of the essential bio-active compounds to function properly. There is where supplements come in. In the true philosophy of Naturopathy, Ken turned his focus to natural supplements to fill what he perceived as a lacking niche in the crowded supplement space - medicinal fungi based natural supplements, NOT the lab produced commercial bio-active compounds.
Search worldwide, Ken found the answer in Bhutan, a country known for its happiness and Bhutan's traditional name of menjong actually means "Land of traditional herbs". He learnt about the ancient healing wisdom of Sowa Rigpa which refers to the Traditional Tibetan Medicine practiced for centuries by the people of the Himalayas and often involved the use of mysterious mushrooms.
Ken partnered with Menjong Sorig Pharmaceuticals, the largest State-owned Pharmaceutical Company in Bhutan, supplying all its hospitals and clinics. Together with KITKOJI, an MOU was signed and a brand called GAKID was launched.
Gakid means happiness in the Bhutanese Language it is the vision of both parties to make this brand of natural supplements accessible to anyone in the world.
For more information about natural supplements, visit www.GAKID.com
The next chapter of our story is being developed and we invite you to join our community and let's Live Again together!
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