A successful career at Merrill Lynch does not seem like the precursor to becoming a snail farmer. For Stephanie Kudus, however, that’s how it began. When she left her bank job, she started Pololi, a takeaway business, but felt guilty about contributing to waste that would end up in landfills, so she promised herself that her next venture would be more environmentally friendly.
As a result, she launched her snail farming business WholeSnail in 2023. A subsidiary of Kudus’ Karang Foodie company, it operates from a 4,500-sq-ft space and hopes to produce snail mucin for the cosmetics industry as well as food products. Surprisingly, snails have been on her mind for a long time. “I always said I wanted to be a snail farmer in retirement,” she laughs.
With WholeSnail, Kudus quickly learnt that she needed to scale up both her experience and knowledge. But this proved challenging. “At most events I attend, I am the only snail farmer in the room,” she says, acknowledging the difficulty in finding likeminded businesses. “I didn’t realise how challenging some aspects of it would be. I struggle to hire a malacologist—a scientist who studies snails—because very few people like that exist.”
She also notes that being a market leader means there is no playbook for snail farming or funding. “Trying to explain why snails are worth farming was hard because no one else here had ever thought about it. Even some funds and professionals couldn’t place or value us as a company.”
As a result, she focused on fundraising herself. “All my investors are there for a reason, and I hope they can contribute to our future success.” Trapeze Group’s Grant Wee is one of the investors.
Kudus is clearly enamoured of her shelled gastropods. “They’re like superheroes,” she gushes. “These snails seem designed for vertical farming—they defy gravity. The Wholesnail team controls the environment they live in, which is impossible when foraging for them in European weather.”
“We can hibernate them throughout their life cycle. There are no noise issues since they don’t make a sound. Moreover, they are active at night, so I have the whole day to take care of them without feeling rushed.”
She sees great potential for snails as a food source. “They’re high in protein and low in fat, which is good for you. In addition, the carbon footprint for snails is also much lower than chicken or cows.”
Snail caviar is also a thing—and far more sustainable than other foods. “For us, that’s another potential area of the market.”
Kudus is also exploring the possibility of selling snail mucin for cosmetic purposes. “There is very little research on mucin at this point, she says. “In working with scientists, we hope to contribute to expanding that knowledge base. Additionally, we hope to understand what the qualities of our slime are, and if there are other factors we can affect to improve its quality.”
As the samples are almost ready for testing, her goal is to get the product to market by the end of the year. WholeSnail has been running for about 18 months with promising results, and Kudus is fascinated by the potential that this market holds.
“France imports 70 percent of its escargots because it doesn’t produce enough of what people want to consume itself. With all the Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris, I could literally have fresh snails on my table within six hours. That could be something. Or if there are other cosmetic companies looking to add mucin into their offerings. Whatever it is, we can chat.”
Photography Mun Kong
Art direction Ed Harland
Hair Yue Qi, using Ghd
Makeup Sarah Tan, using Shu Uemura
Photography assistant Alfred Phang
