## Trees Planted

For us, regeneration begins with the land. That’s why we’ve committed to planting 300,000 native trees across South and North America, starting in the Atlantic Forest, where our yerba mate grows, and extending to the regions where we operate in the U.S.

### Get to know us

### Meet the Semillas

Click on the picture and meet our founders

### Why a name change? And why now?

We’ve considered changing our name probably five or six times over the last 20 years, for a number of reasons. But now feels like the right moment—an opportune time—because we’re really leaning into our values and striving to be more respectful and inclusive of all the different people we work with.

Today, we collaborate with small farmers and Indigenous communities across three countries: Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil. When we started the company in 1996, we were working with just one tribe—the Ache Guayakí—in Paraguay.

As things have evolved, it feels right that we evolve too. This change is about being more inclusive and more respectful.

We’ve always asked: how can we leverage the power of business to drive meaningful change? There’s nothing quite like business when it comes to mobilizing resources, aligning around a focused purpose, and making things happen.

Right now, as a company, it feels like we’re at a creative inflection point — a moment of asking, What will the next chapter look like? To me, a big part of Madre is that creative energy. It represents strength — the ability to hold everything happening in the world and transform it into a force for good.

It also represents something deeper: an incredible sense of care. A kind of energy that holds space for possibility, resilience, and connection.

### What are your hopes for Yerba Madre in the next 5 to 10 years?

My hopes have been consistent—that we continue to lean into the entire yerba mate category and bring forward the traditional loose-leaf, along with all the different varietals, cuts, and regions that yerba mate can be sourced from. So people can enjoy it in the morning, the afternoon, or whenever they feel like it.

I also really hope we continue to lean into being a leader in the regenerative movement—mostly so that we inspire other businesses to do the same. In other words, the more successful we are at creating a profitable business model that drives impact at the source—socially, environmentally, and culturally—the more other businesses and people of all ages will come together and rally behind doing more positive business.

That it continues to inspire—to connect to life, to nature, to each other, and to oneself first—then to connect with friends and family, to come alive, and to have the courage to make your dreams real.

As a business, I think in the next 5 to 10 years we will grow—at a conscious rate. The most important thing here is the rate of growth. I don’t see any conflict between regeneration and economics. On the contrary, there are multiple layers of collateral benefit when you connect the market with the places where yerba is grown—protecting watersheds, soil, and biodiversity.

In the next 5 to 10 years, Yerba Madre will focus closely on the pace of growth—so it aligns with the capacity of the forest, the people, and the yerba madre plant.

### What was the moment when you truly appreciated the power of yerba mate?

The very first time I drank it!

I grew up with extreme hay fever and had been taking medications like Benadryl and Sudafed for most of my life. But they didn’t help much—they just made me feel sluggish and tired. I eventually cut those drugs out of my life completely when I was a teenager.

By the time I got to university, I was really into mountain biking, surfing, and even more vigorous things like strong yoga. I noticed that when I was active, my energy would flow better.

Then one day, Alex shared yerba mate with me—out of a traditional gourd, during a barbecue. Within 15 minutes of drinking it, I could breathe so much better. I was shocked.

I got together with David and you know we had met in class years ago discovered we had a lot of common interest he invited me over to play music one night and as I was sitting in this on this floor just tuned my guitar up he comes back from the kitchen with a kettle and a mate gourd and explained it to me and I'm like wow this is unique like ritual paraphernalia I'm like and we started drinking the gourd and I was just like whoa like what is this stuff here I just really instantly felt invigorated and alert and we just like fell into like really magical jam session in ways and like afterwards I was just kind of shaking my head I'm like whoa like you gotta explain more to me and brought up Alex and I'm like I need to meet Alex I need to get a go where like it was definitely one of those life changing moments in my life.

### With all the challenges we face in the world today, how can Yerba Madre have a positive impact?

The value of the female plants—those that produce the seeds and help propagate biodiversity. They play a key role in bringing the forest back.

We discovered that Yerba Madre, when I first saw it 30 years ago, grows naturally in the shade. You don’t need to cut the forest down to grow it. In fact, you can regenerate the forest with yerba mate.

That has a very positive impact. Yerba Madre, in this moment, is instrumental in restoring the forest and creating biological corridors for jaguars, tapirs, and other species among the remaining fragments of the Atlantic Forest.

### What has the yerba mate plant given to your life?

It’s been there as a guiding light every time I’ve gotten lost. I love getting lost and finding new pathways, and yerba mate has given me the courage to do that—to discover new directions and avoid falling into binary ways of thinking. Yerba mate has helped me see new combinations, new relationships. It’s always been there throughout my life.

It’s given me life. It’s given me love, friendship, brotherhood. It’s given me purpose. And for me—like for a lot of people—it’s about being part of something bigger than myself. Doing things with others is such a joy. To be in service of something that’s not just about you, but about the collective good.