Better Nature was founded in 2019 by Roberts, Kong and fellow co-founders Driando Ahnan-Winarno and Fabio Rinaldo.
Roberts and Kong met while studying at the University of Oxford, and then came across Ahnan-Winarno, who was conducting a PhD focused on tempeh’s positive impact on human health.
After realising there was a gap in a market, they decided to create Better Nature and grant more people the chance to taste and enjoy tempeh.
Discovering tempeh
When Roberts and Kong first met, the plant-based foods landscape was rather different. Roberts, who turned vegan as a teenager, was the only vegan in their college and began trying to diversify the options that were available to students. And it was through this process that Kong also become interested.
“When I first met Elin and I she told me she was a vegan, I thought what even is a vegan,” he recalled.
“But through conversations with Elin and my own research into the food system, I started changing my own consumption of meat.”
And it was while searching for a new plant-based option that had a high protein content and tasted great that Kong met Ahnan-Winarno at a biotechnology conference. After being fascinated with Ahnan-Winarno’s research into tempeh, Kong became really interested in learning more and soon enough pitched the idea to Roberts about starting a business.
“When Chris spoke to me about tempeh, I had only had it once and I didn’t like it,” Roberts said.
“But when I tried it again, I thought this is amazing … and I decided I had to get involved.”
Young entrepreneurs
When Better Nature was founded in 2019, Kong and Roberts were just 23 years old and had limited experience in the field.
“On the one hand it is an amazing experience to have at that age, and on the other hand extremely challenging,” Roberts explained.
As a result, they were forced to learn lessons very quickly, especially who to take advice from and who could be trusted. This process took time, but they were able to move on from mistakes quickly and look at things with a fresh perspective.
“I would not be the person I am today had I not set up Better Nature at that age,” Roberts said.
“It was super exciting,” Kong added. “I would not trade it for anything.”
In fact, Roberts and Kong were recently named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list for 2025 in recognition of their work at Better Nature and their mission to change “how the world consumes protein”.
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