About Us
The story behind Demetria and our winning team
How it all started?
In 2018 Demetria’s four founders first identified the opportunity for bringing leapfrogging ag-tech to the technologically starved and overlooked tropical agriculture value chains.
The innovation flame was lit by the unique combination of deep Coffee industry understanding with the appreciation of the affordability and democratization of sensors and cognitive tech brought about by cloud technologies seen in Israel.
A few months later, after a thorough market validation process they founded Demetria with the mission of building the world’s first coffee quality and traceability Data Cloud driving efficiency and transparency throughout the supply chain.
Founding Team
A unique combination of proven track records, high tech company building expertise, and wealth of
coffee industry know-how and know-who (~100 years of combined experience)
Felipe Ayerbe
Co-Founder and CEO
Eduardo Shoval
Co-Founder and Executive Chairman
Yori Nelken
Co-Founder and CTO
Salomon Kassin T
Co-Founder and Executive Board Member, Commercial Activities
World Class Management Team
Sebastian Arias
COO
Oswaldo Aranha Neto (”Vado”)
Chief Business Development Americas
William Vinck
Head Of International Business Development
Sonia Acuña
VP Business Development & Sales
María Alejandra Barrios, PhD
Head of Machine Learning Scientist
Carolina Pérez
Technical Director
Andrés Vega
CFO
Asaf Ron
VP R&D
Eliran Lazar
VP Product
Felipe Ayerbe
Co-Founder and CEO
- Fundamental experience in enabling and developing greenfield and brownfield agribusiness operations (oil palm, natural rubber, forestry)
- Relevant transaction and deal making experience (Investment Banking and Private Equity)
- Deep multinational business experience derived from breadth of consulting work at McKinsey & Co
- Wealth of knowledge of issues and opportunities in tropical agriculture
Eduardo Shoval
Co-Founder and Executive Chairman
- Highly successful serial entrepreneur; angel investor and high-tech mentor
- 25+ years experience steering companies through rapid growth challenges
- Co-Founder of Cognitiv Fund (Israeli early stage venture fund in cognitive tech)
- Built and sold 7 successful companies (Optibase, Vcon, Accord, Lasercomm, Big Band, Sirica, Accels) with 5 exits of over $300M each and one in excess of $1 Bn and total revenues of multiple $ Billions
Yori Nelken
Co-Founder and CTO
- 20 years of experience as a serial entrepreneur, angel investor and mentor in high-tech, alumnus of Israel’s elite 8200 Intelligence Unit
- Co-Founder of Cognitiv Fund
- AI pioneer (Natural Language Processing)
- Co-founded 3 companies from the ground up with successful exits (Banter, TimeBridge, Local Sciences)
- Former entrepreneur-in-residence at Mayfield Fund in Silicon Valley
Salomon Kassin T
Co-Founder and Executive Board Member, Commercial Activities
- 40 years of transaction and deal making expertise
- Extensive experience and wealth of contacts in commodity trading (coffee, cocoa, sugar, coal)
- Founder of a specialty coffee company, Condor
- Senior high-level network in Israel and LatAm
Sebastian Arias
COO
- Senior finance executive with general management experience in Latin America, growth mindset, business acumen, and exposure to several challenges of turnaround, M&A integration, and start-ups in industries such as Agribusiness, Health Care, and Services -
- Proven track record on P&L management
- Experience in building highly engaged multicultural teams
Oswaldo Aranha Neto (”Vado”)
Chief Business Development Americas
- 40+ years experience in coffee trading, (Brazil and New York), former officer and director of major trading groups (ED&F Man and Gill&Duffus)
- Former President of the Brazilian Coffee Exporters Federation (FEBEC) and Exec Director of Cecafe
- Member of the private sector committee of the International Coffee Organization (ICO) in London
- Former CEO of Pacorini Group (Brazil, Vietnam, Belgium and Italy)
- Economist, with post graduate studies in finance at PUC-RIO and at New York Institute of Finance
William Vinck
Head Of International Business Development
- 40 years of experience in the coffee business in a number of senior functions in trade, industry and logistics/supply chain
- Formerly Head of Procurement and Green Coffee Sourcing from Africa, Central and Latin America in Decotrade (DE Master Blenders 1753) and member of the Board of Directors at the DE Foundation
- Most recently Managing Director for the Pacorini Group of Switzerland and Colombia.
Sonia Acuña
VP Business Development & Sales
- 30+ years experience in coffee and technology
- Former CIO and CTO for Federación Nacional de Cafeteros
María Alejandra Barrios, PhD
Head of Machine Learning Scientist
- Wealth of Silicon Valley experience in Data Science
- World class technical proficiency
- PhD in Physics
Carolina Pérez
Technical Director
- Extensive Spectroscopy experience in coffee (Cenicafe)
- MSc in Food Engineering
Andrés Vega
CFO
- 25+ years of professional experience as CFO of various companies in diverse sectors in Colombia
- Corporate Finance
- Investment Banking
Asaf Ron
VP R&D
- Top of the line full stack developer
- Serial entrepreneur 10+ years experience
- Led dozens of products from idea to production
Eliran Lazar
VP Product
- 10 years of entrepreneurial experience in startup environment
- Proven track record in high-tech business development, product planning, UI/UX
- Former Captain Israeli Defense Forces Infantry
Sebastian Arias
COO
Oswaldo Aranha Neto (”Vado”)
Chief Business Development Americas
William Vinck
Head Of International Business Development
Sonia Acuña
VP Business Development & Sales
María Alejandra Barrios, PhD
Head of Machine Learning Scientist
Carolina Pérez
Technical Director
Andrés Vega
CFO
Asaf Ron
VP R&D
Eliran Lazar
VP Product
Felipe Ayerbe
Co-Founder and CEO
- Fundamental experience in enabling and developing greenfield and brownfield agribusiness operations (oil palm, natural rubber, forestry)
- Relevant transaction and deal making experience (Investment Banking and Private Equity)
- Deep multinational business experience derived from breadth of consulting work at McKinsey & Co
- Wealth of knowledge of issues and opportunities in tropical agriculture
Eduardo Shoval
Co-Founder and Executive Chairman
- Highly successful serial entrepreneur; angel investor and high-tech mentor
- 25+ years experience steering companies through rapid growth challenges
- Co-Founder of Cognitiv Fund (Israeli early stage venture fund in cognitive tech)
- Built and sold 7 successful companies (Optibase, Vcon, Accord, Lasercomm, Big Band, Sirica, Accels) with 5 exits of over $300M each and one in excess of $1 Bn and total revenues of multiple $ Billions
Yori Nelken
Co-Founder and CTO
- 20 years of experience as a serial entrepreneur, angel investor and mentor in high-tech, alumnus of Israel’s elite 8200 Intelligence Unit
- Co-Founder of Cognitiv Fund
- AI pioneer (Natural Language Processing)
- Co-founded 3 companies from the ground up with successful exits (Banter, TimeBridge, Local Sciences)
- Former entrepreneur-in-residence at Mayfield Fund in Silicon Valley
Salomon Kassin T
Co-Founder and Executive Board Member, Commercial Activities
- 40 years of transaction and deal making expertise
- Extensive experience and wealth of contacts in commodity trading (coffee, cocoa, sugar, coal)
- Founder of a specialty coffee company, Condor
- Senior high-level network in Israel and LatAm
Sebastian Arias
COO
- Senior finance executive with general management experience in Latin America, growth mindset, business acumen, and exposure to several challenges of turnaround, M&A integration, and start-ups in industries such as Agribusiness, Health Care, and Services -
- Proven track record on P&L management
- Experience in building highly engaged multicultural teams
Oswaldo Aranha Neto (”Vado”)
Chief Business Development Americas
- 40+ years experience in coffee trading, (Brazil and New York), former officer and director of major trading groups (ED&F Man and Gill&Duffus)
- Former President of the Brazilian Coffee Exporters Federation (FEBEC) and Exec Director of Cecafe
- Member of the private sector committee of the International Coffee Organization (ICO) in London
- Former CEO of Pacorini Group (Brazil, Vietnam, Belgium and Italy)
- Economist, with post graduate studies in finance at PUC-RIO and at New York Institute of Finance
William Vinck
Head Of International Business Development
- 40 years of experience in the coffee business in a number of senior functions in trade, industry and logistics/supply chain
- Formerly Head of Procurement and Green Coffee Sourcing from Africa, Central and Latin America in Decotrade (DE Master Blenders 1753) and member of the Board of Directors at the DE Foundation
- Most recently Managing Director for the Pacorini Group of Switzerland and Colombia.
Sonia Acuña
VP Business Development & Sales
- 30+ years experience in coffee and technology
- Former CIO and CTO for Federación Nacional de Cafeteros
María Alejandra Barrios, PhD
Head of Machine Learning Scientist
- Wealth of Silicon Valley experience in Data Science
- World class technical proficiency
- PhD in Physics
Carolina Pérez
Technical Director
- Extensive Spectroscopy experience in coffee (Cenicafe)
- MSc in Food Engineering
Andrés Vega
CFO
- 25+ years of professional experience as CFO of various companies in diverse sectors in Colombia
- Corporate Finance
- Investment Banking
Asaf Ron
VP R&D
- Top of the line full stack developer
- Serial entrepreneur 10+ years experience
- Led dozens of products from idea to production
Eliran Lazar
VP Product
- 10 years of entrepreneurial experience in startup environment
- Proven track record in high-tech business development, product planning, UI/UX
- Former Captain Israeli Defense Forces Infantry