Sustainable BioProducts hires Karuna Rawal as its first chief marketing officer
CPG veteran Karuna Rawal - who most recently served as president and group client lead at ad agency Leo Burnett is the first chief marketing officer at Sustainable Bioproducts, which is developing protein-packed food ingredients from micro-organisms.
The company - which recently raised $33m from high-profile backers including Bill Gates and the venture arms of food giants Danone and ADM - is led by Thomas Jonas, who spent four years scrutinizing microbes that can survive in extreme environments such as the volcanic springs at Yellowstone National Park.
What makes these ‘extremophiles’ so alluring as a potential food source, says Jonas, is that they have evolved to do more with less – that is, they can produce high quality protein (one of the fungal strains he is working on has all the essential amino acids and a PDCAAS score of 0.93, which is close to animal protein) fast, with minimal inputs.