Founder & CEO
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Founder & CEO
UN Global Seaweed Initiative
The Founder
Nancy Iraba Built This from the Shoreline Up.
In 2020, Nancy Iraba saw something that should have been obvious to everyone: Tanzania produced thousands of tonnes of seaweed every year, farmed almost entirely by women on Zanzibar's coastline, and 99% of it was exported raw, unprocessed, at the lowest possible value, to factories in Asia and Europe.
The minerals, the health benefits, the economic value, and the brand story were all leaving Tanzania. Healthy Seaweed Cafe was founded to change that.
Not as a supplement company. As the infrastructure for a new industry, one where Tanzania captures the value it creates, where women farmers earn real income from their labour, and where the world's growing demand for natural health products is met by the most credible source on earth: the Indian Ocean coast of East Africa.
"We are not a supplement company that sources from Africa. We are an African company that is building the infrastructure for the world to receive the gifts of our ocean. The farmers who grow this product are not our suppliers. They are our co-founders."
Nancy Iraba, Founder & CEO, Healthy Seaweed CafeOur Impact at a Glance
2024-2025 Key Performance Indicators.
Our Impact Model
Creating Value That Flows
From Ocean to Community
Every product you buy sets this chain in motion, from Zanzibar's coastline to your table and back to a sustainable future.
Women Farmers
We work with coastal women farmers who cultivate seaweed using sustainable methods that protect our oceans and support their communities.
Impact outcomes
WE CREATE
LASTING IMPACT
The Journey
How We Got Here
Founded in Zanzibar
Nancy Iraba founds Healthy Seaweed Cafe with a single product, Purple Seamoss Gel, and a supply chain built directly from Zanzibar farming cooperatives.
GoGettaz Impact Award + First Retail Expansion
Wins the GoGettaz Agripreneurship Impact Award. Receives Mustardseed Trust grant of $25,000. Expands to 30 retail stores across Tanzania. Farmer network grows to 150 families.
Katapult Ocean: Sole African Startup, Cohort 8
Selected as the only African startup in Katapult Ocean's eighth accelerator cohort. Builds international network in blue economy investment. Product range expands to five SKUs.
UN Global Seaweed Initiative, New York
Nancy Iraba speaks at the UN Global Seaweed Initiative launch in New York, the only Tanzanian food entrepreneur on the platform. Network reaches 383 farming families.
Target: 1,000 Farming Families
International retail expansion. Subscription model launch. 1,000 farming families in the supply chain. $300/month average farmer income. East Africa's leading certified seaweed food brand.
External Validation
The World Has Noticed.
The People
The Team Behind the Brand.
Our Ecosystem
Funders & Partners
The institutions, investors, and organisations that believe in Tanzania's seaweed economy and the people who build it.
Join the Movement
Every Purchase Supports 383 Farming Families.
When you buy Healthy Seaweed Cafe, you are not buying a supplement. You are investing in the infrastructure of Tanzania's blue economy.