The 15 Food & Agriculture companies that produced the most founders (2026)

A founder factory is a company whose people leave to start companies of their own. This ranks every company in the graph by how many of its alumni — people who founded it or worked there — went on to found at least one company, counting only ventures started no earlier than the company itself.

Refreshed 2026-09-13 · updates nightly
Founder factories · Food & AgricultureAlumni who went on to found companiesMerqueo: 4 alumni founded 2 companiesMerqueo4Soylent: 3 alumni founded 3 companiesSoylent3NOMU: 3 alumni founded 1 companiesNOMU3NOMU Group: 3 alumni founded 1 companiesNOMU Group3Real American Beer: 3 alumni founded 1 companiesReal American Beer3Virgin Group: 2 alumni founded 25 companiesVirgin Group2DeHaat: 2 alumni founded 3 companiesDeHaat2Mavrx: 2 alumni founded 3 companiesMavrx2Smash Kitchen: 2 alumni founded 2 companiesSmash Kitchen2All Day Kitchens: 2 alumni founded 1 companiesAll Day Kitchens2Big Mamma: 2 alumni founded 1 companiesBig Mamma2ChowCentral: 2 alumni founded 1 companiesChowCentral2De Vegetarische Slager: 2 alumni founded 1 companiesDe Vegetarische Slager2Releaf: 2 alumni founded 1 companiesReleaf2Those Vegan Cowboys: 2 alumni founded 1 companiesThose Vegan Cowboys2
# Company SectorHQFounded Founders Companies started
1 Merqueo Food & Agriculture 4 2
2 Soylent Food & Agriculture Los Angeles, USA 2013 3 3
3 NOMU Food & Agriculture 3 1
4 NOMU Group Food & Agriculture 3 1
5 Real American Beer Food & Agriculture United States 2024 3 1
6 Virgin Group Food & Agriculture United Kingdom 1970 2 25
7 DeHaat Food & Agriculture 2 3
8 Mavrx Food & Agriculture United Kingdom 2 3
9 Smash Kitchen Food & Agriculture 2 2
10 All Day Kitchens Food & Agriculture San Francisco, USA 2018 2 1
11 Big Mamma Food & Agriculture France 2015 2 1
12 ChowCentral Food & Agriculture Nigeria 2 1
13 De Vegetarische Slager Food & Agriculture Netherlands 2010 2 1
14 Releaf Food & Agriculture 2 1
15 Those Vegan Cowboys Food & Agriculture 2 1
How this is counted. A person counts as an alumnus of a company if they founded it or worked there. They count towards the company’s score if they went on to found at least one other company that was started no earlier than the company itself. Universities and other non-commercial organisations are pruned from the graph where we can identify them. Data is community-corrected — fix something.