Meet Manuela Zoninsein, CEO and Founder of Kadeya
World’s first closed loop beverage system
Meet Manuela Zonninsein, CEO and Founder of Kadeya, and learn more about her journey from Oxford to founding Kadeya, which is providing the world’s first closed loop beverage system.
What did you study at Oxford?
I completed an MSc Modern Chinese Studies at St. Hilda’s College, matriculating in 2010.
What was your most important takeaway from your time at Oxford?
I decided not to pursue a DPhil or go back into journalism, instead committing to the life of an entrepreneur and starting my first business.
Did your Oxford experience contribute to starting the company?
Absolutely.
Did you always think you would be an entrepreneur?
As the daughter of a Marxist economist and feminist anthropologist, I had no exposure to business, let alone entrepreneurship. That said, I was always identifying problems, finding ways to solve them, then putting people together to do the work. I just never thought to make money off of that!
When it was time to go to college, I needed money so I took a job working on the trading floor of the Chicago Board of Trade and became hooked on markets. My father forbade me from investment banking post university, so I went into journalism thinking that would satisfy my interest in constant learning. Alas, I rapidly became bored with the lack of innovation (especially at the time that the internet was becoming a standard tool in society).
Given my penchant from a young age for climate and waste solutions, I also saw reporting wasn’t moving the needle on environmental impact and wanted to be a part of building the solutions, not just writing about them.
Dinner table conversations in my household were about systemic problems, so my sister and I learned to think of ourselves as small nodes in larger structures. To change anything, one needs to change the system. Leaky bucket solutions never interested me so when I finally decided to solve for single use beverage packaging, I only considered approaches that would be inherently globally scalable. By adding a few decisive design constraints - reusable bottles, optimized climate impact, access to water for all - the Kadeya model emerged.
Anything you would like to share with aspiring entrepreneurs?
What makes you weird as a kid is what makes you cool as an adult.
What motivated you to start Kadeya?
I started my career as a climate correspondent in China. After living in China for nearly a decade, where I launched my first company, I saw that country go from reuse to single use. The same thing was happening in Brazil, where I launched my second company - now the largest online marketplace for smallholder farmers – and where I saw treasured beaches overwhelmed with waste. I understood just how unsustainable our current linear economy is on a global scale and committed to creating the solution in the place which created the problem: the US.
When I moved back to NYC for a corporate tech job, I began asking myself, “why do we manufacture a new container for every bottle of water someone drinks?” Looking around, I was inspired by bike sharing networks, which make it more convenient for people to bike around, without the inconvenience of owning and managing a bike. I thought something similar could work for reusable bottles, given that the single use market continues growing while reusables have plateaued in the US, the world’s largest such market.
What is the problem the company is solving?
Kadeya enables construction, industrial and military sites that must provide water to their employees to replace millions of single-use plastic water bottles with water stations delivering filtered water in glass containers, which Kadeya’s stations sanitize and reuse on-site.
Why is this an important problem to solve?
The beverage industry poses severe environmental challenges, including billions of bottles in landfills and waterways. Regulatory actions are underway, with anticipated ESG reporting standards, a draft strategy on plastic pollution, and negotiations for a global treaty. The EU has enacted single-use plastics bans. While U.S. states are slowly implementing policy, Kadeya most immediately addresses OSHA mandates on potable water provision in industrial environments, the logistical headaches of providing enough potable water to power worker performance, and a competitive labor environment which has given power to and choice to laborers. Site managers benefit from reduced costs, overhead, and hydration risks; corporates can show they care about climate and worker well-being. All this at no additional cost.
How is the company solving the problem in an innovative way?
Kadeya’s patent-pending kiosk decentralizes the linear and inefficient beverage supply chain to the point of use, eliminating practices that are inefficient while increasing access to safe drinking water to overlooked populations.
We are not the beverage brand, but the platform atop which all drinks commerce will travel globally. Think of us as the liquid railroad and rather than compete with the flavored drinks consumers know and love, we are a new path to market that reduces corporate costs, improves carbon footprints, and engages consumers more effectively.
What has been the biggest struggle you have experienced as a founder?
Fundraising! Not that I wasn’t prepared for this, but I am shocked at the limited imaginations and willingness to take risks from many investors (not the Oxford Angel Fund :) We want to be introduced and meet with more VCs who care about profit and purpose equally.
Most rewarding accomplishment to date as a founder?
Hiring the most brilliant, talented, passionate, fun individuals as my colleagues. I learn from them every single day and show up to work excited to face that day’s challenges, thanks to the Kadeya team.
Why is the Oxford Angel Fund excited about this opportunity?
The global packaged beverage market is approximately $2T in size and poses severe environmental challenges, including billions of single use bottles in landfills and waterways. We are impressed with Manuela as a founder and also the innovative solution that Kadeya has developed as the world's first closed loop beverage vending system, turning the bottled beverage supply chain into a circular system. We like the focus on industrial workplaces where hydration is essential and that Kadeya creates a positive environmental impact with every sip, gulp and swig.
Kadeya
The world’s first closed loop beverage system
Founders: Manuela Zoninsein
Founded: June 2020
Stage: Seed, March 2023
Notable Investors: Supply Change Capital
At Kadeya, the world's first closed loop beverage vending system, we rethink the bottled beverage supply chain entirely into a circular system that creates a positive impact for soldiers, workers, and the planet with every sip, gulp and swig. We currently focus on supporting workplaces where hydration is existential – construction sites to Air Force bases, refineries to manufacturing plants – helping employers reach and report safety and sustainability goals to attract and retain top talent, meet the changing winds of regulatory and financial standards, and save money to boot.