Fre Tachea

Biography

Fre Tachea is the co-founder and CTO of Essential Impact, Essential is the first to have developed a bio-manufactured protein for human consumption in sub-Saharan Africa. With a footprint in Kenya and Ethiopia, Essential’s mycelium production serves to create low-cost, high-quality, climate-resilient protein to tackle malnutrition and transform food systems. Fre has worked in fermentation technology for 18 years. Most recently, she was the Director of Fermentation at Culture Biosciences, a series C startup valued at $500M, where she led large scale bioreactor builds and established and oversaw a team of engineers to accelerate bioprocessing using high-throughput bioreactors. She has managed more than 50 company’s fermentation processes and developed large bio-process engineering teams. Fre is the winner of the prestigious 2025 the Elevate Prize.