Mo.Na. Gems was born out of a college dorm kitchen. Inspired by seeing people creating resin jewelry online, Mecca McDonald  spent her summer before junior year experimenting to find an eco-friendly “plastic” formula. She linked up with some peers and finally found a starch based, compostable biomaterial that they started creating jewelry with, and selling to their local community.

After graduating college she moved to NYC and continued growing Mo.Na.! 

Mo.Na. gems is a biomaterials company replacing plastic with a fully biodegradable, potato based material. Founded by Mecca McDonald, a scientist, designer, and brand strategist with a degree in Science, Psychology, and Economics from Johns Hopkins University, Mecca has spent five years developing and commercializing a material that performs like plastic and disappears in backyard compost in four weeks. 

She has led paid enterprise pilots with Coach and Nature Valley, raised $155,000 in non dilutive funding from the 776 Climate Fellowship and Greentown Labs, and built a community of 200,000+ followers across Instagram and TikTok. She grew up in Jamaica, where she witnessed firsthand the accumulation of plastic on coastlines with no waste infrastructure to remove it,  an experience that grounds every decision she makes about the urgency and equity dimensions of the plastic crisis.