FOOD FUNDED

Perri Kramer is the Program Director at Food System 6 Accelerator. She designs and leads the programming to support entrepreneurship and provides direct strategic support to frontline innovators in the food and agriculture space. Perri has led Marketing and Operation teams, as well as product launches, in the organic food industry for over fifteen years.

Vegan Mob is a restaurant and Food Truck that serves Vegan BBQ and Vegan Soul Food/Soul Fusion. Soul Fusion is the fusion of traditional African American dishes mixed with soul food from other ethnic backgrounds.

Our mission here at Vegan Mob is to provide nutritious and healthy food with plant-based ingredients. Our passion is to help surrounding communities by empowering them with food they love and enjoy, while also supporting a healthy life-style.

Arno Hesse is dedicated to financing a sustainable and equitable future with thriving food systems and regenerative technologies.

As a co-leader and investor with Slow Money Northern California, Arno has led multiple investments in food businesses, with a focus on climate change and social justice. Previously, he was Executive Vice President for Retail Markets at MUFG Union Bank, now U.S. Bank.

Matt turned his lifelong passion for baking and working in the food service industry into Firebrand in 2007.  Matt has a passion to create a great workplace culture of inclusion, hard work and service.  Matt believes that a company has the responsibility to it’s employees as well as the community it serves.  Being raised in a house where his mother went to jail as a teenager and having experienced homelessness himself, Matt aims to make Firebrand a place where people can create a better life for themselves, their families and their community.

Born and raised in India, Narendra’s first career was in the technology sector. Ten years ago, Narendra founded Our Table Cooperative, which strives to create a model community-scale food system by bringing together all stakeholders in the food value chain as members of a single vertically integrated organization.

Autism Advocate and Organic Operations Executive with over thirty years experience in the Foodservice, Retail and E-commerce channels including time with notable companies including Disney, Safeway, Revolution Foods & The Town Kitchen PBC.

Passionate about leveraging technology to bring a cleaner food supply to the masses. I pride myself on building relationships that grow and support health, wellness and organic food companies.

Sarita Lopez, aka The Cactus Whisperer, worked for Big Red soda company until she moved back to California to start an organic farm, selling Nopales (prickly pear cactus paddles). In 2015, she decided to combine her two worlds of beverage and farming to create an organic cactus water.

Priyanka Khole is on the Leadership team of the Slow Money Northern California where she is  involved with Community building, outreach and events. She is passionate about healthy food, sustainable food systems and regenerative agriculture.

A  tireless advocate of Slow Money investing principles, she loves to learn about emerging opportunities to support entrepreneurs building businesses focussed on strong social impact and sustainability goals.

Refugee from Afghanistan turned entrepreneur, on a mission to bridge our worlds through health!
Zen Basil, a 1st to market superfood edible organic basil seeds, that look like chia, but on a g/g comp, Zen Basil seeds has nearly 2X the fiber, calcium, potassium and iron.
New product line, Cellular Hydration drink mix, to help 95% of ppl missing their daily fiber needs and support 70% of dehydration in America. Zen bottle, a reusable glass bottle, design to be, zen for life.

Sanjay Rajan is a parallel social entrepreneur, a compassionate and authentic leader building a thriving organizational culture that brings the best out of anyone and everyone.

He is an idealist yet adaptable and does not get bogged down by business as usual. Planet-People-Prosperity is his mantra.

Angie Mertens is a board member of Slow Money Northern California and part of the FOOD FUNDED production team. Her expertise is in program design and implementation, training early stage companies, investors and corporates to scale their social impact, and ecosystem building.
Angie has been spearheading ONE WORLD Training as the Program Director since 2015. She has produced numerous ecosystem events and enterprise showcases in collaboration with organizations such as Social Venture Circle, toniic, Spero Ventures, Nia Impact Capital and others. Angie is a lifelong health-focussed eater, passionate cook and can be found exploring Bay Area’s farmer’s markets.

Ali is responsible for identifying mission-aligned businesses throughout the U.S. and deploying effectively-structured integrated capital to support their success, with a focus on inclusive resilient food systems and regenerative agriculture.
She has an MBA in Sustainable Solutions, and 13+ years of professional experience catalyzing market transformation, focused on leveraging community development finance to empower marginalized communities.

I am Founder & CEO of Nuflours, a gluten free baked goods company that has successfully introduced delicious, nutritious baked goods that everyone can enjoy. I am driven leader, passionate about access to quality food, agrobiodiversity, and inclusive culture. Our products are based on alternative grains and cleaner ingredients, supporting biodiversity and conscious consumers.

Growing a women-led company, I am dedicated to supporting and growing women and minorities in professional capacities, with 90% of Nuflours workforce being women, LGBTQ, or POC.

PLANETARIANS makes the best meat combining the power of both worlds: plant-based proteins and fermentation.