Three men and a baby food revolution

When you think of three 20-something childless men, baby food perhaps isn’t the first business venture that would spring to mind. But for José – co-founder of Yamo and speaker at the forthcoming FoodHack Summit – and his co-founders Tobias and Luca, the opportunity was clear.

Everyone was talking about fresh, healthy, sustainable food - but we were still feeding the tiniest members of our families products that were older than they were. With processed sugar and additives aplenty. Something was very wrong. So they founded Yamo in 2016. Standing for taste (yamyam) and a love of good food (amo – “I love” in Italian), their baby purées are 100% fresh, organic and natural. As a growing number of parents jumped on board, this Swiss brand quickly expanded to Germany and Austria and is now distributed in some of the most well known retailers across the DACH region. So what’s their secret?

The idea

In autumn 2015, Tobias and Luca decided to go vegan for a month. Reading food labels like never before, they noticed that baby food has a scarily long shelf life. José, their friend studying food science, explained that products are thermally sterilised to get rid of any germs and bacteria – but this process also affects the product’s vitamin content, colour and taste. Recognising a gap in the market, the three friends set themselves the goal of creating the freshest, tastiest baby purées the world had ever seen.

Turning a weakness into a strength

Far from considering themselves clueless newbies, the friends saw their lack of previous experience in the product area as a distinct advantage. Rather than working from assumptions, they got out there, spoke to parents and figured out what existing products weren’t providing. It turns out that there was plenty of room for improvement. After being selected as a Top 25 business idea in the Venture start-up programme, Yamo was founded in August 2016. After a year of development and plenty of positive news coverage, the team raised 52,000 francs in a successful crowdfunding campaign that enabled them to start production.

Adapting an approach that was used in fruit juice production, the team used pressure instead of heat to pasteurise their products. This let them extend shelf life without adding any preservatives, creating the natural, fresh products that the parents in their focus groups were craving.

Rapid growth

After closing their first seed round in 2017, Yamo launched the first online baby food subscription service in Europe. Customers could create their own meal plan and adapt or unsubscribe at any time. The convenience and flexibility was a big hit with time-pressed parents, allowing the brand to expand into Germany and Austria in January the following year.

After winning the Digital Commerce Award in 2018, Yamo successfully closed a second, seven-figure funding round. This milestone piqued the interest of high-street retailers and later that year their products appeared on Coop shelves across Switzerland, with the German supermarket chain Rewe following suit in mid 2019.

Giving back

But the Yamo team weren’t content to stop there. They made it their mission to make sure that all children – regardless of where they were born – are able to benefit from healthy, fresh and sustainable food.

So, in September this year, they launched the Giving Back programme, with an aim to support 100,000 children worldwide. A percentage of the profits from each box sold will be donated to charity partners working in rural India, where 61 million children go to bed hungry. The team will also make a difference closer to home by donating any unsold products to disadvantaged families in Switzerland and Germany – reducing food waste to boot.

So Yamo isn’t just about baby food. It’s about happy parents and healthy babies - both here in Switzerland and across the world.