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MeliBio and Eleven Madison Park Showcase Bee-Free Honey for World Bee Day

In celebration of World Bee Day on May 20, MeliBio, the world’s first startup making real honey without bees, partnered with 3-Michelin-starred restaurant Eleven Madison Park to serve bee-free honey to a distinguished crowd of investors, creators, and leaders in conservation and government. 

A high-level luncheon

The exclusive event took place at Eleven Madison Park’s world-renowned NYC restaurant, where two dozen invited guests were treated to an intimate cocktail reception and four-course lunch featuring MeliBio’s award-winning bee-free honey. Guests also received commemorative Eleven Madison Park gift bags with MeliBio honey samples.

Founded in 2020 by Darko Mandich and Aaron Schaller, PhD., MeliBio combines precision fermentation with plant science to create a product identical in taste and consistency to honey derived from bees. In March, the company completed $5.7M in seed funding to begin scaling and commercializing its products. 

MeliBio Honey Eleven Madison Park
Guests at MeliBio’s special event ©MeliBio

Helping bees recover

According to the startup, its products serve a crucial role by helping to take the pressure off of native and wild bee populations, whose numbers have been decimated by as much as 90% in recent years. As a result, the world’s honey industry is now vulnerable to price fluctuations, lower yields and a shrinking supply chain. By offering innovative bee-free honey that doesn’t compete with wild bee populations, MeliBio says it can help support biodiversity while reliably supplying the world’s $10B honey industry with a quality product.

World Bee Day, first created in Slovenia, was designated by the United Nations in 2017 and seeks to increase understanding of the major role bees play for all life on Earth. 

MeliBio Eleven Madison Park Honey
©MeliBio

Honey that delivers

“World Bee Day is the perfect occasion to reflect on the importance of bees for survival of humans and the entire Earth. We at MeliBio think of bees every single day while building the better honey industry that finally gives bees a break and helps restore the bee biodiversity,” shared Darko Mandich, co-founder and CEO of MeliBio. “By showcasing our first-of-its-kind award-winning honey at the three-Michelin star Eleven Madison Park in New York, we prove that animal-free honey delivers on taste, nutrition, and applications in high-end food and beverage formulations.”




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