Neloufar Taheri
Neloufar (Nelly) Taheri is an Iranian-heritage multidisciplinary designer, strategist, and entrepreneur based in the UK. She completed a Bachelor of Business Administration in Strategic Design and Management at Parsons School of Design in New York before moving to London for a dual Master's in Innovation Design Engineering, earned jointly from Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art — one of the world's most rigorous programmes at the intersection of design, engineering, and entrepreneurship. Her academic work explored areas including social innovation, bio-design, and speculative design, with a focus on building alternative systems to address meaningful environmental and societal problems.
It was during that joint programme that Neloufar met the co-founders of what would become Ponda. The company — originally called SaltyCo — was founded in 2019 and 2020 by Neloufar, Julian Ellis-Brown, Finlay Duncan, and Antonia Jara Contreras, with the founding insight that damaged peatlands and the textiles industry's dependence on synthetic and animal-derived insulation were two problems with the same solution. By rewetting degraded peatlands and cultivating Typha (bulrush) through paludiculture, the team developed BioPuff — a plant-based insulation material that matches the thermal performance of goose down, costs less to produce, and generates positive ecological outcomes with every unit sold.
As COO and Co-Founder, Neloufar oversees the operational architecture of a company that spans regenerative agriculture, advanced materials science, and sustainable fashion manufacturing. She has been instrumental in building Ponda's supply chain across Europe, managing the company's relationships with brand partners including Berghaus and Stella McCartney, and driving commercial development as BioPuff has scaled from prototype to multi-tonne production. Her background at the intersection of design strategy and systems thinking has shaped how Ponda positions itself not simply as a materials supplier but as a builder of regenerative supply chains with measurable ecological impact.
Ponda raised $2.4 million in seed funding in November 2025, in an oversubscribed round co-led by Faber and Counteract, bringing total financing to approximately $6.5 million. The company has received the H&M Foundation's Global Change Award and recognition from King Charles III's Terra Carta Design Lab, and is preparing commercial BioPuff launches for Autumn/Winter 2026. Neloufar's journey — from New York to London, from design school to running operations at a pioneering biomaterials company — reflects the cross-disciplinary, internationally connected character that defines Ponda's founding team.
