Supporting Mission-Driven Entrepreneurs
Lisa Curtis started her business, Kuli Kuli, on the basis of the benefits of the moringa plant, which is grown in parts of Asia and Africa. The plant also became her key selling point. But then she realized, after a friend’s suggestion, that her story should lead the way.
https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/This-Extreme-Extrovert-Started-a-13731665.php
Griffith Foods, the global product development company from Chicago, USA, led the round with eighteen94 capital, the Kellogg Company’s venture capital fund.
https://vegconomist.com/health/kuli-kuli-closes-5m-series-b-funding-to-make-moringa-a-household-ingredient/
With the energy boost came the realization that raising moringa as a crop could not only improve local nutrition but also provide sustainable livelihoods. To fulfill that vision, Curtis and three colleagues started Kuli Kuli to sell moringa-based energy bars and shots, herbal tea, and powder supplements. “I knew that introducing moringa to the U.S. market was a venture that would be successful,” she says. “I just wanted to make sure it was done in a way that helps support women moringa farmers around the world.”
https://www.inc.com/magazine/201809/bill-saporito/2018-inc5000-kuli-kuli-foods.html
It is difficult to overstate the importance of Whole Foods to a generation of natural food and product startups. In the early 1990s, the retailer was instrumental in transforming a sleepy industry comprising dreary mom-and-pops into a $50-plus billion colossus incorporating eye-pleasing design and head-spinning variety. It also emerged as an essential bridge to the mass market. Ask an organic food entrepreneur about the watershed moment when she knew her business would succeed. More often than not she’ll respond: the day I got into Whole Foods.
https://www.inc.com/leigh-buchanan/some-vendors-still-love-whole-foods.html
Nestled in downtown Oakland, California, sustainable food and agriculture startup Kuli Kuli has roots more than 7,000 miles away. Founder Lisa Curtis was introduced to the moringa tree while serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in a small town in Niger. A vegetarian whose local diet consisted mainly of millet and rice, Curtis was able to curb her malnourishment, a lack of protein and key vitamins by adding moringa to her daily regime. Her health turnaround sparked an interest in introducing the benefit of the moringa plant to North American eaters.
https://www.greenbiz.com/article/kuli-kuli-superstar-superfoods
In the hot plains of Chinandega, Nicaragua, Julio MonteAlegre and his workers are planting moringa. A superfood that is well known in Nicaragua but still growing in popularity in the United States. The crop is driving Julio’s company, Esentium, to create more impact for his local community of El Viejo.
https://real-leaders.com/entrepreneurship-mean-cultures-found/
Kuli Kuli’s founder, Lisa Curtis, got her first taste of moringa as a Peace Corps volunteer in a small village in Niger. As a vegetarian, she was eating mostly rice and millet — a diet that left her feeling sluggish. When she mentioned her fatigue to women at the community health center, they suggested she try moringa. After buying the leaves from a neighbor’s tree, she mixed them with a popular peanut snack, called kuli-kuli, and noticed her health improve.
https://real-leaders.com/meet-moringa-the-most-nutrient-dense-plant-on-the-planet/
When Lisa Curtis was a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger, she discovered moringa, a green with high nutritional content that’s popular in Africa and elsewhere. When she returned to the United States, she decided to start a company that would introduce it to U.S. consumers – and provide better incomes to farmers in Africa.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestreptalks/2017/10/05/a-startup-backed-by-kelloggs-vc-arm-kuli-kuli-introduces-americans-to-a-new-superfood-moringa/#37110f64e06d
Grown on trees in regions of Africa, South America, and India, the super green is typically ground up and used in powder form, and it’s becoming an increasingly popular ingredient in bottled juices and bars. “Interest has been growing around greens in general, such as with smoothies or kale, and I think moringa is becoming a trending ingredient because people are looking for ways to get the most nutrient-dense [green] they can,” says Lisa Curtis, founder of Kuli Kuli, America’s leading moringa supplier.
https://www.wellandgood.com/good-food/health-benefits-of-moringa/
Kuli Kuli sources its moringa from Ghana, Haiti, and Nicaragua. In many nations, those included, the green-leafed plant is considered a weed, only eaten by those occupying the poorest societal rung.
https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/green-life/three-organic-fair-trade-alternatives-coffee