An interview with Willem Sodderland, founder of Seamore, one of Forward Fooding’s top 500 Food Tech startups.

Willem Sodderland, founder of Seamore

It’s time to put a face to the name…

We asked our FoodTech 500 top-runners to give us a bit of insight into how they started out as a company and their thoughts on the role of technology in Food innovation. Meet Willem, the mastermind behind Seamore, turning seaweed, the world’s healthiest and most sustainable food, into an everyday food. Let’s see what he had to say.

So tell us a little bit more about you! Where did the idea for your FoodTech company come from?

Willem: In 2014, I visited the island of Ibiza with my family. I ordered a seaweed salad in a restaurant and got a beautiful plate…with no seaweed. When I asked the chef, he explained that the green tagliatelle on my plate was not pasta but seaweed. My thought: if seaweed can look like something we know and love then we should be able to unlock this amazing source of food for the future!

How is tech central to your business?

Willem: Tech – food processing in particular – helps us create products that not only have the nutritional and sustainability benefits that come with the use of innovative ingredients such as seaweed, but also taste and look great.

Why do you think it’s important to see the food industry embrace tech?

Willem: I think we should embrace nature and tech at the same time, in equal measure. Tech can help speed up transitions – changes in eating habits for example, or the use of new sources of protein – that otherwise would take much more time. And we don’t have that time: we need to change the world of food now.

Want to know more? Check out Seamore’s full profile here.

Congratulations again to Seamore for ranking 5th in the “Next-Gen Food & Drinks” category of the Foodtech 500 list.

To find out who else made it into the FoodTech 500; the top Food Tech companies in the world, click here.

For more FoodTech news, join our Food Revolution community here.