Nirav Patel has been appointed CEO of NatureLock Foods on May 1st 2022. He previously founded and led Simply Foods Ltd. The company created Kenya’s first finger millet based and instant porridge product, Uji Mara Moja. In this capacity he set up a world-class factory in Nairobi using extrusion technology. He then launched the product at major retail outlets across Kenya.
Before NatureLock, Tei founded Azuri Health Ltd in 2010, operating from Thika, with the objective to make premium fruit and porridges, whilst making a contribution to fighting extreme post-harvest loss, particularly in the fruit sector.
Joris is an experienced impact investor with ties to East Africa going back to his teenage years. Since 2012, he has managed a privately held impact investment fund with an exclusive focus on capitalizing early stage, Tanzanian and Kenyan companies. He has achieved investment deals with 20+ companies that are working towards a better world.
Before NatureLock, Wilco was the founder and Managing Director of TuttiFoodi in the Netherlands, started in 2016 with the objective to apply a new preservation process in the Dutch agricultural sector. Through a co-operation with the Wageningen University, Wilco shifted his interest towards applying the new process in East Africa.