yamo – enjoyment for the little ones, joy for the grown-ups
Yamo wants to shake up the baby food market. A startup company in Central Switzerland has developed a novel approach and is developing the freshest organic baby food in Europe. Conventional baby food is heat-sterilized and, in an unchilled state, has a shelf life of 1.5 years, during which it loses its color, flavor, and all valuable nutrients. Using new technology, yamo manages to prolong the sell-by date of baby food for several weeks. During that time, it stays as fresh as if it had just been home-made, true to the motto: “Fresh is best!”
What is your background? How did you come up with the idea?
During a vegan month, Tobias sharpened his senses at the supermarket. He noticed a layer of dust on the baby food shelf and realized that the jars seem to keep indefinitely. There must be another way, he thought. The three founders, Luca, a marketing and sales expert (studied journalism at the University of Zurich), José, a food scientist with a Master’s degree from ZHAW, and Tobias, the all-rounder CEO (a business administration graduate from the HSLU), decided to start a baby food revolution.
What do you want your project to achieve? What motivates you?
We want to be pioneers in terms of healthy nutrition for infants. With our philosophy we want raise people’s awareness of the importance of a fresh, healthy diet, for all humanity, in particular in infancy. We can give parents valuable time – more time to spend with their children, and less time to peel and mash carrots. This is the baby food revolution, yeah!
Do you work at your idea full-time or part-time? How do you deal with the workload?
We all work full-time. A good balance is very important to us. We try, for example, to get plenty of exercise not to work too much on Sundays.
Where do you want to be in three years?
In three years, we also want to offer yamo in other European markets.
How did you proceed with the development of your idea? Do you have particular specialist skills?
Our founding team fortunately has diverse competencies, which has helped us a lot. For any subject about which we knew little or nothing, we got ourselves outside expert advice. To implement our idea, we spoke with a great many potential clients and used the traditional trial-and-error method to execute it. We still work that way today, by the way.
What distinguishes you from other providers in the market?
We are the only baby food manufacturers in Switzerland. In addition, we use innovative, gentle technology to create a product that is as fresh as if it was just made at home from scratch. The technology is called “pressure pasteurization,” and we are the only ones in Europe who use it for baby food. Pressure pasteurization will kill dangerous germs without affecting the vitamin content, color, or taste of the purees. This process gives the jars a shelf life of several weeks. Conventional jars are usually older than the children who eat them.
Why would anyone invest in your startup?
Our product is in keeping with the spirit of the times. Fresh, natural, organic, and at the same time time-saving foods are becoming increasingly popular. In the US, similar concepts have already conquered retail listings nationwide. Now it is time for Europe to taste the difference!
