About Us
We are scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs widening the range of ingredients manufacturers can use. Food first. Then skin care, home and beyond.
Our Mission
To find useful chemistry the industry has missed, and turn it into ingredients we can scale.
Our Story
2nd Nature started with a simple idea. The ingredients we use today are mostly the ones that were easiest to find. There's far more useful chemistry out there, and we built a way to look for it.
Our founding team comes from biotech, computational science and finance. Between them, they've spent their careers taking processes from the lab to full-scale production.
Our Team
Our team has built and scaled companies from the ground up, produced ingredients at industrial volumes, and led innovation at some of the most iconic brands in the world.
Effendi Leonard, PhD
CEO & Co-Founder
Proven biotech leader.
Past: Ayana Bio, Provivi, Ginkgo Bioworks, Calysta.
David Groshoff, JD/MBA
Co-Founder
Finance & Strategy expert.
Past: Ayana Bio, JPMorgan, Allis-Chalmers, Pacholder Fund.
Kristala Prather, PhD
Founding Advisor
Process Engineering expert.
Head of MIT’s Chemical Engineering Department.
Jeffrey Hollender
Founding Advisor
Sustainability pioneer.
Past: Co-founder & CEO of Seventh Generation.
Have a formulation your ingredients can't meet?
Strategic Partnerships
We work with industry partners on discovery and development, from a single formulation problem or a feedstock.
