Umaro Foods
Summary
Umaro Foods makes plant-based meat alternatives using red seaweed for a superior taste, texture and nutritonal profile. Their first product is a delicious bacon.
Why we invested
- Exceptional product. Best plant-based bacon we’ve tried.
- Clean label which makes it more appealing to a large customer base which is attracted to plant-based products, but put off by the heavy processing and long ingredient lists.
- Scrappy team.
- Strong potential moat around seaweed production and use in plant-based meat alternatives.
Investors
Team
Beth Zotter Cofounder/CEO
Beth started out her career at Energetics where she analyzed emerging technologies and R&D projects in heavy manufacturing industries. She then served as Director of R&D in aquaculture for Bio Architecture Lab where she led their efforts in offshore cultivation of seaweed for biofuels. Next, she founded Zotter Clean Energy Consulting where she provided consulting services on a range of topics in energy and technology. She holds a BA in Environmental Science from Harvard and an MS in Energy and Resources from Berkeley.
Amanda Stiles Cofounder/CTO
Amanda has a PhD in Plant Molecular Biology from Virigina Tech and she then did a postdoc at Berkeley. Afterwards she worked as a research scientist at the National Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering in Beijing. Later she joined Ripple Foods as a team lead for protein innovation and was subsequently promoted to Associate Director of R&D, Head of Research.
