The Founders of The Seaweed Company
The Seaweed Company was founded in 2018 by Joost Wouters, Edwin Sneekes, and Stefan Kraan — three men with a vision to establish a company that would make a real, lasting impact.
Today, The Seaweed Company (TSC) specialises in cultivating traceable seaweed species on a commercial scale as well as developing high-value products for humans, animals, soils, and plants. What started as one seaweed farm in Ireland quickly expanded and TSC now operates in The Netherlands, Morocco and India.
But how did The Seaweed Company come to be what it is today? Our three founders took the time to chat with us about their story, how they discovered seaweed, and what led them to creating The Seaweed Company.
Joost Wouters, SeaEO
Before becoming one of our three founders, Joost Wouters lived an interesting life. He first started out as a mechanical engineer before moving to Procter & Gamble, where he worked in the marketing and sales department. Following this, he spent several years on the board of directors at Pepsi Cola in The Netherlands. However, Joost has always had a passion for sustainability, and he found that the corporate world no longer served his passions.
This led Joost and his wife to establish their own consulting firm in Spain that specialised in organisational sustainability. Here, Joost and his team collaborated with large firms to develop effective plans that would aid them [their clients] to implement more sustainable practices. Despite these well-thought-out plans, many of these companies failed to implement these plans.
While his company allowed him to do good, Joost realised that what he truly wanted was to make a tangible impact. And so, in 2016, Joost and his family packed up their bags and returned to The Netherlands. He spent several months travelling around, meeting people who worked in wind, solar, and sustainable batteries. However, none of these areas caught his attention and he felt that they had already been heavily commoditised.
“Then someone showed me the concept of seaweed, and I don’t know what happened, but it was love at first sight.” — Joost
With no knowledge of seaweed whatsoever, Joost set out to learn as much as he could about this special resource. The more he learned, the more he became interested in it, and he came to realise that this was it; seaweed was how he was going to help create tangible impact.
Dr. Stefan Kraan, Chief Scientific Officer
A seaweed company simply wouldn’t exist without the expertise and knowledge of a seaweed scientist. With over 35 years of experience in the science and seaweed world, Stefan Kraan is our very own seaweed expert.
Even from a young age, Stefan knew that he wanted to pursue studies that were related to fresh or sea water. His journey started with a training position as a biological analyst in the southern regions of The Netherlands.
During this time, a friend taught him how to dive, ultimately opening the gateway to Stefan becoming a lover of the ocean. On his very first sea dive, he fell in love with the underwater world and from that point on, he knew that he wanted to pursue a career related to the ocean.
“My first experience [diving] I think that really opened my eyes to the underwater world, it was amazing.” — Stefan
After a compulsory stint in the army, Stefan studied marine biology in Groningen which is where he discovered the beauty of seaweed. During this period, he learned about DNA sequencing and the DNA of different types of kelps. This provided him with the necessary knowledge that he would need to hybridise, cultivate, and grow seaweed in the future.
After his studies, Stefan took on a contract as a research assistant in Ireland. What was meant to be a two-year adventure has turned into a permanent move, with Stefan and his wife having lived in Ireland for 27 years now.
In addition to countless years spent in the scientific and seaweed world, Stefan also started his own company in 2008 called “Ocean Harvest Technology”. After ten years here, Stefan moved over to an oil and gas company where his knowledge would be used to determine how seaweed could be used to create sustainable biomass. It’s here that Stefan met his two future business partners, Edwin and Joost.
Edwin Sneekes, Co-Founder
As is the case with Joost, Edwin has a diverse background, having worked in various industries. After studying aeronautical engineering, he started as a project manager at The Netherland’s main airport, Schiphol, and soon moved up to a director position. With a desire to guide companies in change, he moved into consulting and worked on change and turnaround management for different multinationals while obtaining his MBA as well. This also included a central role in the turnaround of an Alcoa business of 14 factories in Europe.
After working in the corporate world, Edwin felt it was time to take action and being an entrepreneur himself, he co-started his own company, BagDrop systems. Taking this company from founding through to scale-up provided him with insights, knowledge and skills that would prove invaluable when establishing and scaling up operations at The Seaweed Company. From here, he was involved in different startups and companies in change, taking them from their initial founding through to scale-up. It was during this period that he was tasked with setting up a company that aimed to produce seaweed for the production of green gas and got stung by the seaweed bug.
“I was asked to look at an idea for a company which was related to seaweed, and got fully caught by the beauty, possibilities, and impact of it.” — Edwin
Little did he know that taking on this role would be a life-changing decision. He quickly realised that seaweed was far too valuable a resource for it only to be used in biomass. Luckily, this is where Edwin, Joost, and Stefan met.
With all three understanding the potential value of seaweed and having an immense passion for sustainability, they realised that they wanted to do things differently. They were determined to see how they could really capture the value of seaweed and create a different type of organisation, one in which the whole team was involved and committed to generating impact.
After the three founders broke away from their jobs, they began preparing to establish the company. And on one Friday afternoon, the three founders were sitting together discussing what they would name this new venture. Whatever the name was, they all agreed that it had to reflect the ambitions and essence of the company. That is when they decided that they weren’t going to be just any seaweed company, rather it was going to be ‘The Seaweed Company’.
Now with a clear vision in mind, the real work had to begin. While The Seaweed Company is experiencing tremendous growth and success today, countless hours of hard work were put in and numerous obstacles had to be overcome to create the incredible company that we have today. If you’d like to know more, stay tuned for the next part of “The Story Behind The Seaweed Company”.
About The Seaweed Company
The Seaweed Company was founded in 2018 and specializes in the development of high-value products for humans, animals, soils, and plants and in the cultivation of traceable seaweed species on a commercial scale. The Seaweed Company has its own seaweed production locations in Ireland, Morocco, India and The Netherlands and has developed products that contribute to sustainable agriculture. The Seaweed Company is actively involved with innovative research around applications in the medical field (Alzheimer’s and diabetes), functional food (alternative proteins), sustainable materials (natural composites) and sustainable seaweed cultivation methodologies. The Seaweed Company has a strong focus on Blue Farming, where we use the blue strength of the sea to support our land. Our TopHealth Plants product is an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuel-based fertilizers and pesticides.
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