Meet Shane Newman, Nick Siu, Sachie Nomura, Terry Daly founders at Kabocha Milk Co.
Shane (CEO) is the world’s largest farmer and exporter of Kabocha (pumpkin/squash) to Asia and has a lineage of over 4 decades of farming and trading experience.
Sachie Nomura and Nick Siu (COO) are a powerhouse couple; the former being a Japanese celebrity chef and food mogul with significant experience in CPG development and the latter being an ex-commercial lawyer with over 10 years experience in operations of food brands.
Terry Daly (CMO) is the company’s marketing expert, having been a founder of The Agency 88 with Nick, an advertising agency with offices in Australia and New Zealand.
Kabocha Milk was founded in July 2021, after Shane’s wife read an article about #avocadomilk, a novel #plantbased beverage that was invented by Sachie and exported to the US. He had always wanted an opportunity to rise up the value chain beyond fresh #kabocha. He approached Sachie to brainstorm ideas on how to do this, and immediately Sachie, Nick and Terry leapt onto the idea of creating a Kabochamilk through #upcycling waste kabocha.
They identified that New Zealand has over 15,000 tonnes of waste #kabocha that goes to animal feed, and that there was a significant opportunity to sell the seeds (which is over 60% protein) and the oil and create an alternative protein in the form of a HMMA (High Moisture Meat Alternative).
🎯 Kabocha Milk Co. unlocks the incredible health properties of Kabocha (pumpkin/squash) in ready-to-eat formats. Their first product, the award-winning Kabochamilk, is 100% #vegan and provides 50% of your daily Vitamin A in a single serve. Co-funded by the New Zealand government, the team is also developing an alternative protein meat patty from the 15,000 tonnes of imperfect grown Kabocha per year that goes to stock food.