Oceanworks
Sustainable Ocean Alliance Alumni
Santa Monica, California
Oceanworks offers a simple, fast, and global recycled plastic marketplace with material quality control, traceability as well as global supply and logistics.
Recycled plastics are intercepted and recycled around the world, from Alaska to Haiti to Southeast Asia, protecting sea life, reducing pollution and minimizing reliance on virgin plastics. Yet it is not straightforward to access recycled plastic, limiting its industrial use. Oceanworks offers a simple, fast, and global recycled plastic marketplace. Ocean works offers material quality control, traceability as well as global supply and logistics. Their mission is to accelerate the market for recycled ocean plastic to clean-up the ocean, reduce the use of new virgin plastic, and eliminate demand for new plastic production.
Stage of funding:
Seed stage
Mentoring needs:
- Strategic Partners
- Fundraising
About the founders
Rob Ianelli
Rob is the President and co-founder of Oceanworks, the global marketplace for recycled plastics and sustainable materials. He started his career in developing consumer brands and manufacturing overseas. Having launched several consumer products, he has a unique ability to understand multiple aspects of global supply chains. A serial entrepreneur and experienced founder, Rob has had a diverse career spanning ventures in FinTech, marketing and through a culmination of past experiences, has dedicated his expertise in his next chapter towards solving plastic pollution and scaling recycled plastics adoption for brands, manufacturers and consumers.
Vanessa Coleman
Vanessa is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Oceanworks, the global marketplace for recycled plastic materials and products. We are leading the effort to connect the global demand for sustainable materials with trusted suppliers. Prior to Oceanworks Vanessa was founding CEO of FINsix Corporation. As CEO of FINsix Vanessa raised $20M in over 3 rounds of financing; oversaw product development and team formation from R&D through product release of, Dart, a benchmark laptop charger; closed a multi-million dollar contract with the largest laptop OEM; and stood up a high-volume production line centered in Dongguan China. FINsix was selected as an Inc 35 Under 35 company and Vanessa was selected a Forbes 30-under-30. Vanessa also co-founded of Saha Global, an NGO committed to getting the cleanest water to the poorest people, and remains an active member of the board of directors. Vanessa holds a M.Eng. from MIT, MBA from MIT Sloan, and a B.A. in from Dartmouth College.