Apple Racial Equity fund invests in healing power of honey

The healing powers of honey

Apple has poured some funding from its Racial Equity and Justice Initiative fund into biotech startup SweetBio and VC firm VamosVentures.

A taste of honey

SweetBio was founded by siblings Kayla Rodriguez Graff and Isaac Rodriguez, whose family is from Puerto Rico. They are working to develop advanced wound care for all, based on the healing properties of Manuka honey. This honey comes from bees pollinating the Manuka tree and is known to have antibacterial and healing properties.

SweetBio is one of several Latinx-founded companies to have received funding from VamosVentures. The latter is a venture capital impact fund that invests in diverse, technology-enabled companies across the country.

Apple’s investment comes in the form of putting $50 million into a number of firms that focus on Black- and Latinx-owned businesses, including VamosVentures.

Generating real impact

“We want to be more than just another investment fund,” Marcos Gonzalez, founder of VamosVentures, whose parents both immigrated to the US from Mexico told Apple.

“We want to create a portfolio of companies that are led by Latinx and diverse founders and can generate real impact — both social and economic. The fact that Apple has made a meaningful commitment to our fund shows that they recognize the challenges that exist for these kind of businesses and they want to be part of the solution.”

Gonzalez saw in SweetBio an opportunity to both support a Latinx-founded business and to target an important issue for the greater Latinx community.

“Not only do we believe in the mission and these founders, not only do we recognize the hurdles that are presented to people of color in general — especially women — but we also believe that the product that they’re developing could be very transformational for communities of color,” says Gonzalez.

Wound care and diabetes

For Kayla, whose background is in business, and Isaac, who has a PhD in biomedical engineering, developing a product that could potentially help so many was the driving force behind SweetBio.

“Honey has been used since the ancient Egyptians to treat wounds,” says Isaac, who named the wound dressing APIS, after Apis mellifera, the scientific name for the honey bee. “And it’s still being used today in hospitals, but it’s messy and non-containable. So we worked to bioengineer that ingredient and deliver it in a sheet that can be manipulated easily.”

“We saw that the biggest need was in wound care, specifically for diabetic ulcers,” says Kayla. “And diabetes targets communities of color the hardest, so that’s where a lot of our initial exploration has happened.”

Initial tests seem positive

Doctors at Regional One Health have been using SweetBio’s APIS dressings as part of a pilot program for the last year.

“The city of Memphis is about 60 percent African American, and a high number of our patients are living at or below the poverty line,” says Dr. Reginald Coopwood, Regional One Health’s president and CEO. “So I’m very proud that we’ve set up our Innovation Center that provides access to startups like SweetBio — companies that are trying to find new and innovative ways to solve chronic health care issues around complex populations.”

Dr. Tony Alleman runs the hospital’s Wound Care Center and has seen positive results from the SweetBio product for a number of his patients.

“I think APIS is a good product and it’s very easy to use,” says Alleman. “We had one diabetic patient who had a foot wound for months and we tried a number of things to no avail. We then tried the SweetBio product and within two weeks, his wound was closed.”

What the founders say

“To have our dream supported by a company like Apple gives us fuel to keep going,” says Isaac. “It allows our idea, and the bold ideas of future generations, to be translated into products and services that are going to improve the quality of life for people.”

“Isaac and I started this company to help people heal,” says Kayla.

“And what I didn’t understand when we first started was that yes, we’re helping wounds heal, but more importantly, we’re helping families and communities heal. That kind of change takes a village and we’re incredibly proud that VamosVentures and Apple are supporting us on our journey.”

“We have unfinished business in the effort to end systemic racism,” said Apple CEO, Tim Cook. “Apple will be a force for change.”

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