Tagged: plant-based
30 results
Glife Technologies Pte Ltd
Glife Technologies is a Singapore-based B2B food and agri-tech company that digitizes the food supply chain across Southeast Asia. It connects farmers and suppliers directly with restaurants, hotels, caterers and retailers through an app-based sourcing marketplace, its own cold-chain distribution network, and an in-house ERP platform called GlifeWare. By cutting out layers of middlemen and aggregating demand, Glife aims to lower costs for buyers, give farmers reliable access to end-buyers, and improve food safety and food security in the region.
Growthwell Foods
Growthwell Foods is a Singapore-based plant-based protein company building meat and seafood alternatives tailored for Asian palates. Re-founded in 2019 by brothers Justin and Colin Chou on top of their father's 1989 vegetarian food business, it manufactures brands like HAPPIEE! and owns a majority stake in Israeli ingredient maker ChickP, which produces a chickpea protein isolate above 90% purity. Backed by a $22M Series A led by Creadev with Temasek and GGV Capital, the company operates a fully automated R&D and production facility at Senoko and aims to feed a growing region hungry for sustainable, culturally familiar protein.
NotCo
NotCo is a Chilean food-tech company that uses a proprietary artificial intelligence platform called Giuseppe to reverse-engineer animal-based foods and recreate them from plants. Founded in 2015 in Santiago, it makes consumer brands such as NotMilk, NotBurger, NotMayo and NotIceCream, sold across the Americas, and licenses its AI to other food companies. NotCo became Chile's first unicorn in 2021 and runs a plant-based joint venture with Kraft Heinz in North America.
Ocean's Halo
Ocean's Halo is a California-based natural foods company that grows, harvests and packages organic, ocean-to-table Asian-inspired products - from its signature trayless seaweed snacks to frozen kimbap, broths, noodle bowls and sauces. Founded in 2011 as New Frontier Foods by a group of former finance and tech executives, the brand farms its own organic seaweed in a protected bay off South Korea and sells through roughly 10,000 retail doors including Costco, Whole Foods, Walmart and Target, pairing plant-based nutrition with plastic-free, trayless packaging and a 1% for the Planet conservation pledge.
Public Goods
Public Goods is a New York-based, membership-driven direct-to-consumer brand that sells its own line of healthy, sustainable everyday essentials - personal care, household, cleaning, grocery, and supplements - at near-wholesale prices. Pitched by co-founder Morgan Hirsh as 'Amazon with a soul,' the company launched on Kickstarter in 2017, built a single house brand with minimalist design and clean ingredients, and ties purchases to reforestation and food-bank donations.
Renewal Mill
Renewal Mill is an Oakland-based next-generation ingredients company that upcycles the fiber- and protein-rich byproducts of food manufacturing - like okara (soymilk pulp), oat milk pulp, corn fines and off-spec green bananas - into premium gluten-free flours and baking mixes. Founded in 2016 by Claire Schlemme and Caroline Cotto, the women-owned benefit corporation sells both direct-to-consumer and as a B2B ingredient supplier, aiming to keep 100% of what we grow feeding people.
Taika
Taika is a San Francisco-based functional beverage company making ready-to-drink canned coffees and matcha lattes infused with adaptogens and functional mushrooms - ingredients like L-theanine, ashwagandha, and lion's mane - meant to deliver focused energy without the jitters or crash. Founded in 2019 by former Facebook engineer Michael Sharon and world-class barista Kalle Freese, the brand is plant-based and sweetened with monk fruit for zero added sugar. Its tagline, 'Feel Inspired, Not Wired,' captures the pitch: caffeine with calm, sold direct-to-consumer online and through retail.
Wholly Moly!
Wholly Moly! (好哩) is a health-food brand built on a simple, slightly stubborn premise: that oat bran - the fibrous outer casing of the oat that most milling throws away - deserves to be the center of a meal rather than a byproduct. Founded by Claire Cao Fang and operating between Silicon Valley and Shanghai, the company turns North American oats into instant porridge, hot cereal, and lightweight-packaged oat drinks aimed at younger Chinese consumers looking to swap refined white rice for whole grains. It raised roughly US$10 million in a Series A round led by Adrian Cheng's C Ventures in 2020.
Matias Muchnick
Matias Muchnick is the Chilean co-founder and CEO of NotCo, a food-tech company that uses a proprietary AI system called Giuseppe to design plant-based versions of dairy and meat products. Founded in 2015, NotCo became Chile's first unicorn in 2021, formed a joint venture with Kraft Heinz, and counts Bezos Expeditions among its investors.
Bloomi
Bloomi is a sexologist-led, direct-to-consumer intimate wellness brand offering clean, plant-based products - lubricants, arousal oils, intimate washes, moisturizers, and body-safe vibrators - designed for sensitive skin and free of common vulvar allergens. Founded by sexologist Rebecca Alvarez Story, the company pairs a proprietary 'Clean Standard' for ingredient transparency with shame-free sexual health education, and became the first Latina-founded brand to launch in the sexual wellness aisle nationwide at Target.
Hume Supernatural
Hume Supernatural is a San Diego-based clean personal care company making plant-, mineral-, and probiotic-based products - led by an aluminum-free deodorant - that support the skin microbiome while controlling odor. Founded in 2020 by an attorney, a Sun Bum veteran, and a cosmetic chemist, the brand rejects the trade-off between 'natural' and 'effective,' formulating from scratch with proprietary biotech ingredients. It sells direct-to-consumer, on Amazon, and through retailers including Whole Foods, Sprouts, and CVS, and has grown into one of the fastest-growing natural deodorants in the U.S. natural retail channel.
Pique
Pique (piquelife.com) is a Los Angeles-based direct-to-consumer wellness brand best known for pioneering crystallized whole-leaf tea. Founded by Simon Cheng, the company turns organic teas and plant compounds into single-serve crystals that dissolve in cold or hot water, and it has expanded into skin, gut, hydration and energy supplements built around its Cold Extraction Technology and Triple Toxin Screening standards.
Playground
Playground is a female-founded sexual wellness brand making clean, vegan, water-based personal lubricants and intimacy products intentionally formulated for women. Its FDA-cleared, clinically tested formulas blend adaptogens like ashwagandha with skincare-grade ingredients such as hyaluronic acid, vitamin E and bamboo extract to support vaginal health while boosting libido. Co-founded with pop icon Christina Aguilera as Chief Brand Advisor, Playground raised $2M in seed funding and sells direct-to-consumer plus retail partners including Target.
Quantum Energy Square
Quantum Energy Square is a Venice, California-born food brand that makes plant-based energy bars engineered to replace the energy drink. Each square pairs 100mg of caffeine from organic green coffee with 10g of plant protein and balanced macronutrients from fruits, nuts and seeds, so the caffeine releases slowly for steady, no-crash energy. Founded by Daniel Medvene and Leah Marquez after 200-plus recipe iterations, the company sells direct-to-consumer and through Whole Foods, Sprouts, REI and Thrive Market, and is the official energy bar of IRONMAN and Rock 'n' Roll Marathon events.
Tezza Foods
Tezza Foods makes the first dairy-free yogurt that goes spoon-for-spoon with Greek yogurt. By culturing and straining organic American-grown soymilk, the Oakland-based company turns whole soybeans into a thick, high-protein yogurt with the protein and probiotics of dairy Greek yogurt - plus fiber and omega-3s - using about 90% less land, water and emissions than dairy. Founded in 2019 by MIT-trained microbiome scientist Nathaniel Chu and Josh Moser, Tezza is a public benefit corporation built on the idea that the world's most nutritious and sustainable protein should be the one we all eat.
Alex Abelin
Alex Abelin is the co-founder and CEO of PlantBaby, the Hawaii-based company behind Kiki Milk, a whole-food, organic plant-based milk built for kids. A three-time founder who spent seven years at Google and sold his smart-city startup LQD WiFi to Verizon in 2016, he traded payphone kiosks for pumpkin seeds after he and his wife Lauren couldn't find a clean plant milk for their son. PlantBaby has raised roughly $7M and hit $4.8M in revenue in 2024, selling through its own site plus Sprouts, Wegmans, Erewhon, Amazon and Thrive Market.
Daniel Medvene
Daniel Medvene is the CEO and co-founder of Quantum Energy Squares, a Santa Monica plant-based energy bar company he started in 2019 with partner Leah Marquez. After years of relying on pre-workout powders and gallons of coffee that left him 'wired but tired,' Medvene set out to engineer a cleaner source of all-day energy. He and Marquez ran more than 200 recipe iterations with a sports dietitian, food scientist, and pastry chef before landing on a bar powered by organic green coffee and balanced plant-based macros. The company raised $2.5 million in seed funding in 2021 from a roster of pro athletes, became the official energy bar of the IRONMAN and Rock 'n' Roll Marathon series, and now sells nationally through Whole Foods and Sprouts.
Homecourt
Homecourt is a luxury home and personal care brand founded in 2022 by actress Courteney Cox and beauty-industry veteran Sarah Jahnke. It applies beauty-grade standards to everyday household products, selling non-toxic, plant-based, fine-fragrance cleaning sprays, candles, body care and laundry products through its own site and retailers including Nordstrom, Bluemercury, Revolve and Amazon. The company raised an $8 million Series A in October 2025 led by CULT Capital after doubling revenue every year with a famously tiny team.
Little Sesame
Little Sesame is a Washington, D.C.-born food company that makes freshly spun, organic hummus from regeneratively farmed American chickpeas. What began in a 500-square-foot basement beneath a deli has grown into a two-part business: a fast-casual hummus restaurant and a national consumer-packaged-goods brand sold in more than 1,000 retail doors, including Whole Foods, Sprouts and Wegmans. The company pairs chef-driven flavor with a direct, traceable supply chain that supports regenerative organic farmers and treats good agriculture as a climate tool.
NuCicer
NuCicer is a Davis, California agtech and food-tech company breeding a new generation of high-protein chickpeas. Spun out of UC Davis and built on the largest pool of chickpea genetic diversity on earth, the company uses predictive (precision) breeding and genomics to develop chickpea varieties with up to 75% more protein than conventional beans - alongside better flavor, lower fat, and higher fiber. NuCicer sells whole beans, functional flours, protein powders, and bespoke trait packages to food brands seeking minimally processed, sustainable plant-protein ingredients that out-compete soy and pea isolates on taste and texture.
Plant People
Plant People is a plant-based functional wellness brand making science-backed, zero-sugar supplements built around functional mushrooms, adaptogens, and vitamins. Founded by Hudson Gaines-Ross and chef Gabe Kennedy, the company sells a line of 'Wonder' gummies and chews - WonderDay, WonderSleep, WonderFocus, WonderCalm and more - direct-to-consumer and through major retailers including Whole Foods, Sprouts, Target, REI and Amazon. A Certified B Corporation, Plant People grew profitably for roughly seven years before raising a Series A led by Manna Tree Partners in November 2025.
RYZE Superfoods
RYZE Superfoods is a Boston-based direct-to-consumer wellness brand best known for its mushroom coffee - a blend of organic instant coffee, organic fiber, and a six-mushroom 'Super6' functional blend (cordyceps, lion's mane, reishi, turkey tail, shiitake, and king trumpet). Founded in 2020 by Harvard classmates Andrée Werner and Rashad Hossain, RYZE pitches a calmer, lower-caffeine ritual that delivers focus and immune support without the spike-and-crash of regular coffee. The company grew largely on early seed money plus aggressive social and influencer marketing, reaching reported revenue in the tens of millions while expanding into matcha, hot cocoa, creamers, and other functional blends.
Soupergirl
Soupergirl is a Washington, DC-area food company making fresh, plant-based, certified-kosher soups, gazpachos, and salsas. Founded in 2008 by former stand-up comedian Sara Polon and her mother Marilyn, the mother-daughter business grew from a local home-delivery operation into a brand sold in 800+ retail locations including Costco, Whole Foods, Kroger, and Amazon Fresh. Soupergirl pairs radically simple, responsibly sourced recipes with an outspoken commitment to sustainability and farmworker rights - it was the first consumer packaged goods brand certified under the Fair Food Program.
Nick Wiseman
Nick Wiseman is the co-founder and CEO of Little Sesame, a Washington, D.C. born hummus company that grew from a 500-square-foot restaurant basement into a national consumer brand sold in nearly 3,000 stores. A third-generation Washingtonian who started cooking at 15 and trained on New York's fine-dining line, Wiseman built Little Sesame with chef Ronen Tenne and cousin David Wiseman, anchoring the brand to regeneratively grown organic chickpeas from Montana. In July 2025 the company closed an $8.5M Series A to fund a new 23,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and a push to convert 10,000 acres to regenerative farming by 2027.
Sara Polon
Sara Polon is the co-founder and CEO of Soupergirl, the Washington, DC plant-based soup company she launched in 2008 with her mother Marilyn (a.k.a. Soupermom). A former stand-up comedian who once led tours through the Middle East, she turned a reading of Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma into a mission to fix a broken food system one bowl at a time. Soupergirl survived a no-deal turn on Shark Tank, raised a $2M Series A from sustainability investors, became the first brand to earn Fair Food Program certification, went plastic-neutral, and now sells in hundreds of retailers including Whole Foods, Costco and Kroger.
Will Nitze
Will Nitze is the founder and CEO of IQBAR, a brain-and-body nutrition brand he built from a Kickstarter campaign into a nine-figure CPG company selling plant-based protein bars, hydration mixes, and instant coffee in more than 10,000 retail doors. A Harvard psychology and neuroscience graduate who once sold software to oil-and-gas companies, he formulated his first products with no food-science background, scaled IQBAR past 100 million bars sold, and now hosts the founder podcast Eating Glass.
Amy's Kitchen
Amy's Kitchen is a family-owned, privately held organic food maker based in Petaluma, California. Founded in 1987 by Andy and Rachel Berliner and named after their daughter, the company makes 250-plus vegetarian frozen and convenience meals - soups, burritos, pizzas, bowls and mac and cheese - all built from organic, non-GMO ingredients. A Certified B Corporation, Amy's has grown from a kitchen-table pot pie into a roughly billion-dollar retail brand without ever going public.
Paul Schiefer
Paul Schiefer is the CEO of Amy's Kitchen, the family-founded organic frozen food maker in Petaluma, California. He started on the canning line as a high-school intern, then spent more than two decades inside the company - in IT, international, sustainability, government affairs and Chief of Staff - before being named President in 2023 and CEO in April 2026.
OLIPOP
OLIPOP is a prebiotic soda company that turned the soft drink industry on its head by proving that soda can be both delicious and good for your gut. Founded in 2018 by Ben Goodwin and David Lester, the Oakland-based company combines nostalgic flavors with functional ingredients - each can delivers 6-9 grams of prebiotic fiber from plant-based sources like cassava root, chicory root, and nopal cactus. After reaching $400 million in revenue and profitability in 2024, OLIPOP closed a $50 million Series C at a $1.85 billion valuation in 2025, making it the fastest-growing non-alcoholic beverage brand in the United States.
Ashwin Cheriyan
Ashwin Cheriyan is the CEO and co-founder of Thistle, a San Francisco-based plant-forward meal delivery company he built from a cold-pressed juice pop-up in 2013 into a nationwide subscription service delivering over 20 million meals. A self-described 'recovering corporate lawyer,' he traded a career at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett doing billion-dollar M&A deals for the chance to fix how Americans eat — driven by his parents' experiences as physicians watching patients suffer from diet-related chronic disease. Thistle, which he runs alongside his wife and co-founder Shiri Avnery, has raised over $20 million and now serves the West and East Coasts with chef-designed, nutritionist-approved meals that are gluten-free and dairy-free by default.