BIOTECHNOLOGY
networks for female entrepreneurs to fill the void .
Helping those in need
Le Thuy Vuong , founder and chief technology officer of Davis-based The Redmelon Company , founded in 2012 , also hired Marrone as interim CEO . Vuong , a Ph . D . scientist , launched her company to use the nutrient-dense gac fruit , which originates from Southeast Asia , to address vitamin A deficiency in children and young mothers in Vietnam , where she was born and raised , as well as in India , Laos , Cambodia and other rural communities . The deficiency causes a host of medical conditions , including delayed growth in children and night blindness in adults .
She invented the oil extract process of the gac fruit — a bright-orange , oval fruit covered with short spikes — and patented her technique , SafeStraction , which doesn ’ t use toxic solvents , to create products that can be added to foods , beverages , cosmetics and nutritional supplements and has applications for the alternative-protein and CBD oil markets .
Marrone is leading efforts to raise $ 2 million to $ 4 million to scale production and build the company ’ s own manufacturing facility , as well as facilitate potential partnerships to incorporate the oil into foods such as rice . The company is in talks with Mars and Nestle , which sell products in countries with vitamin A deficiencies , to add the gac oil into popular candy products . Marrone is also helping to develop the company ’ s e-commerce platform expected to launch this year .
Vuong says there is a sharp contrast in how she ’ s perceived as she works with potential partners compared to the 1990s , when she was the founder and CEO of her former company , Fishrock Laboratories , and attributes that to the success of talented women executives such as Marrone who have shown women can also run a successful business .
“ To me , there ’ s no distinction between the need for women or for men .
“ It ’ s flatly and plainly obvious there ’ s prejudice and bias in the system against women . … Let ’ s call it what it is . In the world of venture capital , this is improving , but I think everybody would say it ’ s not improving fast enough , and it ’ s not improving fast enough for founders of color either .”
PO BRONSON Managing director and partner , IndieBio
… If we keep thinking that there are differences between men and women , we continue on with that thread ,” says Vuong . She acknowledges women typically are raised to be more facilitating , accommodating and empathetic . “ But it should not make it that we are always the facilitator , the accommodator , but also a good leader because of that too .” Vuong is one of several women of color in ag-tech featured in the
27-minute documentary “ From Farms to Incubators ,” produced by Amy Wu and Chris Schodt in 2017 .
When Wu began reporting on agriculture and ag-tech for The Salinas Californian in 2016 , she noticed there was a lack of women ( and even fewer women of color ) in CEO or decision-making positions in either industry . That piqued her curiosity . When she discovered a few , it felt like an untold story , says Wu . She wanted to give them voices , and as she reported , she became captivated by the challenges farmers are facing as well as by the women ’ s personal stories and drive to develop innovative technology to solve those challenges .
That propelled Wu to found From Farms to Incubators , a multimedia storytelling platform . “ I think there ’ s a real need for a community for women in this space and women who are interested in this space as a place to network and connect with each other but also a place where everybody from policymakers to growers to investors , those who want to seek out women founders , have a place to go ,” says Wu .
Creating an impact
Shely Aronov , cofounder and CEO of Davis-based biotech startup Inner- Plant , earned her degree in industrial engineering at Tel Aviv University in Israel , where she was born and raised , graduated from Stanford University with an MBA , and launched the food brand , Yamba Hummus . Then in 2016 , when she had her first child , she had an epiphany : She wanted to create a positive impact on the world .
Aronov was passionate about food , so when her father-in-law , a nanoelec-
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