Speaker Bio
CEO, Co-founder and food activist at Heura Foods
Marc Coloma is food activist and CEO at Heura. Born in Barcelona in 1991, Marc has been involved in social activism since he was just 16 years old. In 2015 he decided to take part in an entrepreneurship program to create solutions to the problems in the current food system. His aim was, and is still to bring attractive solutions, and thus make livestock obsolete. In 2017, after extensive research, Heura was created and launched into the Spanish Market, with the mission to contribute to the construction of a net positive and healthier food system.
To date, Heura has positioned itself as the fastest growing plant-based meat company in Europe (in key markets such as France, Italy and United Kingdom) and the market leader in Spain with a 26% market share. Heura also leads in consumer acquisition, not only being the brand with the highest penetration but also with the highest repeat rate (50%).
In the last seven years Heura has not only stood out for the development of vegetable meat products but also for being a technological leader, with 25% of its workforce (out of a total of 100) dedicated to R&D. This has led to the creation of the Good Rebel Tech technology platform in order to develop technologies aimed at solving current technological limitations and increasing the nutritional value, naturalness, taste and sustainability of all the company's products.
The work in this field has culminated in the development of the first patent in April 2023, which has obtained a positive opinion report from the European Patent Office.
Marc Coloma's contribution to the transformation of the food model has been recognized by several organizations, receiving in 2018 the CVC Young Innovator Award, 2019 he was recognised by Forbes as the best entrepreneur of the year by the magazine Emprendedores and AIJEC. In 2021 Marc and Bernat were on the “100 other fortunes” of Forbes for their positive impact on the world.
Heura has also been recognized as the most innovative start-up of 2018 at the Alimentaria Fair and the Basque Culinary Center, in 2019, as one of the 100 Best Ideas of the Year by Actualidad Económica and as SME of the year in 2023. It is also part of the Top10 food tech 500 ranking.