Balenti’s Founder Binta Lopes Rodrigues Is On A Mission To Make A Positive Impact with the Humble Baobab Fruit
This French startup’s visionary founder is leading the charge for health, sustainability, and women’s empowerment through her baobab-infused nut butter.
19 January 2025
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The baobab fruit is chock-full of antioxidants, fibre and vitamins | Photo Credit: Balenti
While baobab (pronounced as bay-uh-bab) is still not widely known in the Asia Pacific and Europe, this superfood is slowly gaining recognition in the wellness world, thanks to its impressive nutritional credentials. Studies have shown that the baobab fruit — which is a rich source of antioxidants, fibre and vitamin C — offers a slew of health benefits such as enhancing one’s immunity, helping balance blood sugar levels, reducing inflammation and optimising digestive health, amongst others.
Baobab trees can survive in arid conditions | Photo Credit: Balenti
Native to the African continent where the climate is extremely dry and arid, the baobab trees, which can live for up to 3,000 years, are known as the “tree of life” as they provide food, water, and shelter in a landscape where little else can thrive. Regarded as the largest succulent plant in the world, it absorbs and stores water in its vast trunk during the rainy season, allowing it to produce the nutrient-dense baobab fruit in the dry season.
The growing popularity of baobab can also be attributed to entrepreneurs like Binta Lopes Rodrigues, founder of French startup Balenti, who is passionate about bringing the benefits of baobab to a wider market.
Binta Lopes Rodrigues, founder of French startup Balenti | Photo Credit: Balenti
“I am from Guinea-Bissau (a country located in West Africa) and spent the first 15 years of my life there eating baobab ice cream, sorbet and juice, the ingredient was always a part of my diet. Back then I was not aware that baobab is a superfood, it was only much later when I came across scientific studies about this ingredient that I learned that this humble fruit is chock-full of vitamins, fibre and prebiotic fibre. It also provides a source of energy and is delicious,” Rodrigues said, speaking to Ingredients Network at the ChangeNOW Summit in Paris.
“I was curious to find out why not many people know about this amazing ingredient, and as I delved deeper into my research, I discovered that baobab is a wild ingredient and offers a source of revenue for the local communities in West Africa,” she added.
Building A Business For Good
Fuelled by a deep desire to make a meaningful impact, Rodrigues made the bold decision to leave a successful career in banking after 15 years to launch Balenti in 2022. A brand rooted in health, sustainability and empowerment, Balenti offers baobab-infused nut butters and baobab powder, made using sustainably sourced, wild-harvested baobab fruit.
Balenti’s baobab-infused nut butters | Photo Credit: Balenti
“We wanted to offer consumers something approachable and easy to use because baobab is still relatively unknown to most people. They might not know how to use it, or where to put it, and they might end up mixing it with things that might not yield the best flavours. Adding baobab powder to a nut butter was a way to use this superfood in a familiar format,” Rodrigues shares.
Balenti currently offers three different types of baobab-infused nut butters: De-stress, comprising cashew paste, dates, coconut, baobab powder, agave syrup, coconut and sunflower oil, oat fibre and lemon zest; Shine consists of an almond and cashew base coupled with baobab, hibiscus, cranberry and cardamom; while Boost contains baobab, poppy seeds, cinnamon and ginger. Balenti’s superfood baobab powder is aimed as an ingredient for healthy drinks, bakes and desserts – A superb plant-based source of calcium, baobab powder is suitable for vegan, gluten-free, low-glycemic and raw diets.
The decision to use cashew paste as the main nut base stemmed from Rodrigues’s desire to use ingredients that are produced locally in Guinea-Bissau and West Africa. “Cashew paste also offers other advantages because the final product does not need to be pasteurised, which helps retain the nutrients of all the ingredients,” she explains.
Photo Credit: Balenti
The Ripple Effect: Strengthening Communities
Beyond bringing the benefits of baobab to the rest of the world, Rodrigues sees an opportunity to create significant change for the communities in West Africa, supporting them in sustainably harvesting baobab and making a decent income.
“We work with female cooperatives, and they are the ones telling us what’s their price and we respect their price,” Rodrigues says.
The African Baobab Alliance, with members across the continent’s baobab-producing countries, projects that more than a million rural African women could reap economic benefits from the fruit.
As women in these cooperatives gain financial independence, they can support their families, their community’s development and their kids’ educational outcomes. Rodrigues lets on that the empowerment of these women has a ripple effect, transforming not just their own lives, but also those around them.
This is all part of Rodrigues’ ambitious plan – to build a brand that advocates for a product that she firmly believes in and to improve the lives of women who cultivate these products.
Author: Michelle Yee
A content and communications professional, Michelle spent more than a decade creating content for several leading media titles including Lonely Planet Asia, Yahoo Singapore, and Wine & Dine. After leaving the media industry in 2019, she has been honing her craft at a global communications agency where she helps develop and drive publicity campaigns for brands in the consumer and corporate sectors.
