Now it’s known as the chocolate company planting trees by the million, but, like many startups, The Nu Company’s inaugural product – the Nucao chocolate bar – was crafted in the kitchen of a shared apartment. In 2016, Christian Fenner, Thomas Stoffels, and Mathias Tholey were all preparing to pursue lucrative careers in engineering. That is – until a different calling stopped them in their tracks.
The trio had begun to question the lack of exciting, healthy snacks available on the market, and to think in more depth about the impact of nutrition on the wellbeing of people and the planet. At around that same time, Mathias received a do-it-yourself chocolate kit as a gift.
Passionate about healthy food, he came up with the idea of including hemp seeds in the mixture. In doing so, Mathias managed to avoid adding so much sugar, and thus the base recipe for Nucao was born.
Three journeys, one path
In the coming months, the team continued to tinker with their creations in their shared kitchen and gradually build what would become The Nu Company.
Mathias and Thomas both became interested in the topic of nutrition after dealing with personal health concerns. This led them to a project that they were more passionate about than anything that they had worked on before. Christian meanwhile, had become disillusioned with his engineering job at an automotive group and was driven to join the pair in pursuing a career that, for him, had a real purpose.
“Everyone can find meaning in the professional world if they regularly question what they are doing and why,” says Christian. “The Nu Company doesn’t exist simply to make money. We want to have an impact and play a role in moving towards a healthier and greener world.”
