San Francisco, CA – Renana Krebs, CEO of Algaeing, of Tel Aviv, Israel, won the world’s first plant-based pitch competition for women founders this past weekend at VWS Pathfinder by Vegan Women Summit. Renana pitched live with four other finalists at the global event with over 800 registered attendees, after being selected from over 800 global pitch applications. Renana won a prize package valued at over $50,000 USD, sponsored by Purple Orange Ventures, Evolution Bureau, and WeWork. The other five finalists included:
Aki Kaltenbach, Founder and CEO of Save Da Sea Foods of Whistler, Canada Astrid Prajogo, Founder and CEO of Haofood of Shanghai, China Courtney Blagrove, Co-founder of Whipped Urban Dessert Lab of New York City, USA Isabella Iglesias-Musachio, Co-founder of Kinoko Labs of Berlin, Germany
VWS Pathfinder winner, Renana Krebs, remarked, “As an entrepreneur and a mother, I am honored and thrilled that Algaeing has been selected the winner of the VWS Pathfinder Pitch Competition! At Algaeing, we’ve patented a unique algae-based method to create and dye textiles, actively enabling sustainable manufacturing. We believe in being a force for good and are so excited to have the support of VWS Pathfinder so we can continue creating groundbreaking plant-based innovation solutions for a healthy environment for us and future generations.“
Jennifer Stojkovic, VWS Founder, announced, “The plant-based revolution is here — and it is being led by women. We are thrilled to announce Renana and Algaeing as our first VWS Pathfinder winner. Algaeing represents an exciting new area of innovation for plant-based founders. We received over 800 applications from 31 countries for this pitch competition and we can certainly say that the future of algae is very bright with pitches from many algae-based products ranging from fabrics to yogurts.”
VWS Pathfinder, powered by Vegan Women Summit, took place virtually on Saturday, December 5th and featured more than 46 founders, CEOs, and investors from 20 countries, including a world’s first keynote chat bringing together the United States’ Miyoko Schinner, CEO of Miyoko’s Creamery, with New Zealand’s Shama Sukul Lee, CEO of Sunfed. The event also featured Denise Woodard, CEO of Partake Foods, Matilda Ho, Managing Director of Bits x Bites, Tia Blanco, pro-surfer and founder of Dear Self Skincare, and Daniella Monet, actress and co-founder of Kinder Beauty.
Supporting investors include Stray Dog Capital, VegInvest, Veg Capital, Vegan Capital, Purple Orange Ventures, Unovis, KBW Ventures, and Big Idea Ventures and other event sponsors included Postmates, Upfield, Evolution Bureau, Miyoko’s Creamery, Califia Farms, and WeWork.
The full recorded event and pitch decks are available at https://vwspathfinder.com.
About Vegan Women Summit™
Vegan Women Summit™ (VWS) is a global events and media organization created to empower female-identifying change makers to bring compassion to their careers. VWS hosts events with the goal to foster a community of strong, ambitious rising leaders working to build a kinder, more sustainable world. VWS is supported by leading CEOs, venture capitalists, artists, athletes, & nonprofit leaders from around the world.
For more information, visit https://veganwomensummit.com.
