Tamara Chayo Romo

Yunus&Youth’s profile states that she has been interested in chemistry, physics and the environment since childhood and has done scientific research since the age of 13, in areas including reducing environmental impact and energy development. Waste360 writes that before MEDU she studied ways of extracting compounds from plants to make pharmaceuticals.⁠[1][2]

Forbes México writes that “Tamy,” as she is also called, imagined herself winning a Nobel PrizeNobel PrizeThe Nobel Prize is an international award established under the will of Alfred Nobel, comprising five prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace, awarded since 1901; its funds are managed by the Nobel Foundation, whose Board is based in Stockholm. The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, established in 1968, is not a Nobel Prize.Open the full entry (“se imaginaba ganando un Premio Nobel”), and that she had not planned to go into medicine or into textiles, which was the family business.⁠[3]

Yunus&Youth’s profile states that she was studying chemical engineering at Universidad La Salle México.⁠[1]

Halcyon’s profile of her states that she dropped out of college at 21; she had been studying chemical engineering.⁠[4]

Waste360 writes that she comes from a family of doctors and nurses and launched MEDU at the height of COVID, and quotes her: “Seeing this in my home, I wanted to do something for my family and health care workers of Mexico.”⁠[2]

The Thomson ReutersThomson ReutersThomson Reuters (Toronto Stock Exchange and Nasdaq symbol TRI) is a content and technology company headquartered in Toronto, Canada, that provides information, software, and AI products to professional fields including legal, tax, accounting, compliance, government, and media, and owns the news agency Reuters. The company was formed after The Thomson Corporation acquired Reuters Group PLC in 2008, and Woodbridge, the Thomson family’s private investment company, is its controlling shareholder.Open the full entry Foundation wrote in July 2021 that she, then a 21-year-old chemical engineering student, had co-founded Medu Protection in mid-2020 to develop a sustainable suit to protect health professionals treating COVID-19 patients at a time when personal protective equipment was in short supply. In the report she says: “Most of my family are doctors and nurses. They think, ok, I’m saving humans, but I’m not saving the planet.” TechCrunchTechCrunchTechCrunch is an American technology news outlet founded in 2005 by Michael Arrington and Keith Teare and headquartered in San Francisco; it mainly covers technology companies, startups, and venture capital, and hosts events such as TechCrunch Disrupt. Its ownership passed successively through AOL, Verizon, and Yahoo, and in 2025 Regent announced its acquisition.Open the full entry wrote in 2022 that she started the company in 2020, that she had family in the medical and textile industries and saw firsthand the need for protective equipment, and that she and her team began investigating which fabrics could capture viruses and formed MEDU when they began getting positive results from the lab.⁠[5][6]

Contxto wrote in 2022 that MEDU Protection was founded by Tamara Chayo and Alexis Garberis, and that the idea grew out of her need to care for her family, who work in the health sector, while she was studying.⁠[7]

Forbes México writes that she founded Medu to protect relatives who worked in health care during the pandemic: her uncles (“tíos”) isolated themselves to avoid infecting others, and medical protective equipment was scarce. She said: “Tuvimos la tasa de mortalidad más alta en todo el mundo de profesionales de la salud” (We had the highest death rate of health professionals in the whole world). The article adds that she considers that the venture saved not only her family but also herself.⁠[3]

Bloomberg Línea quotes her: “Tengo familiares que son médicos y mi mayor preocupación era protegerlos” (I have relatives who are doctors, and my greatest concern was protecting them); the article says she wanted to make a suit or gown that could resist the penetration of liquids and bacteria.⁠[8]

Yunus&Youth’s profile says that she co-founded MEDU, a social enterprise developing sustainable medical clothing, with the aims of protecting doctors in rural areas, reducing environmental impact and building a movement for sustainable medicine. Waste360 writes that she raised $40,000 through crowdfunding to donate her products to hospitals.⁠[1][2]

Halcyon’s profile says that MEDU Protection, which she founded, is a Mexican startup that produces sustainable medical apparel and is a pioneer in “green medicine.”⁠[4]

Sources differ on the early money: Waste360 says she raised $40,000 through crowdfunding to donate her products to hospitals; Startupeable’s episode notes say MEDU’s first round of financing came not from a venture capital firm but from crowdfunding, “donde recolectaron USD $400 mil” (in which they raised US$400,000), and that she attributes its success to the clarity of the message she used to convey her purpose; TechCrunch writes that the company began trials in Mexican hospitals, buoyed by an initial $400,000 investment, to test and certify the results and see whether doctors liked wearing the products.⁠[2][9][6]

Startupeable’s episode notes say that her first customer-acquisition strategy was to give the protective equipment to doctors; later, to start charging for it, she showed the doctors how much money they had saved while using the product for free, which made it easier for them to see the real value of the suits. The episode also discusses selling in a market highly regulated by institutions such as the FDA and COFEPRIS.⁠[9]

Bloomberg Línea writes that MEDU Protection formally began operations in July 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic.⁠[8]

On July 29, 2021, Emma Batha of the Thomson Reuters Foundation featured her in a report on plastic waste from COVID-19 protective equipment: a young entrepreneur in Mexico had invented a range of reusable personal protective equipment that she hoped would stop tonnes of single-use medical wear from ending up in landfill, incinerators and waterways and would save hospitals a fortune. She said disposable protective equipment not only caused environmental damage but could spread the virus, which survives up to three days on plastics, a particular concern in countries where medical waste management is poor; she added: “And if everything is thrown away it will create more disease, so it becomes a never-ending cycle.”⁠[5]

The report says the garments are made from a fabric similar to the coating used on surfaces in viral research laboratories. She says a doctor can use four disposable gowns a day, whereas her equipment can be worn all day and washed 50 times without losing its protective properties, so that each garment saves 200 plastic items from landfills and incinerators. MEDU garments carry QR technology that lets health workers check through a smartphone app how many times an item has been washed; after 50 wears, MEDU disinfects the equipment and turns it into cotton scrubs and bags for packaging its products.⁠[5]

She said in the report that many of her relatives work on the COVID-19 front line and that she was “really excited” about the work; she said: “We’re not just making medical apparel, we want to create a movement for a greener medical industry.” The report says she planned to expand to the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States is a federal country in North America made up of 50 states, the District of Columbia as the seat of government, and territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam; its capital is Washington, D.C. The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted a resident population of 331,449,281, and the 435 seats of the House of Representatives are apportioned among the states on the basis of the census.Open the full entry and France and estimated that reusable medical apparel could “slash hospital PPE spending by 90 per cent.”⁠[5]

On January 6, 2022, the Thiel Foundation announced its next class of Thiel Fellows under the Thiel FellowshipThiel FellowshipThe Thiel Fellowship is a two-year grant program started by investor Peter Thiel and run by the Thiel Foundation that funds young people who skip or stop out of college to build new things instead. The program has been criticized by figures in education for encouraging young people to leave college.Open the full entry; she was among them (item 21 of the list), aged 22 and based in Mexico City. The announcement describes her project: “MEDU is a sustainable medical apparel producer providing healthcare professionals with the recyclable and innovative garments they need to remain protected while on the job.” It adds that during the two-year program fellows receive $100,000 and mentorship from the Thiel Foundation’s network.⁠[10]

Forbes México wrote in 2025 that her venture caught the attention of PayPalPayPalPayPal Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: PYPL) is an American digital payments company that operates payment brands including PayPal, Venmo, Braintree, and Xoom, providing online and in-store payments, money transfers, and consumer credit to consumers and merchants worldwide.Open the full entry co-founder Peter ThielPeter ThielPeter Thiel is an American entrepreneur and investor, a co-founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies, and the first outside investor in Facebook. He is a partner at the venture capital firm Founders Fund and founded the Thiel Fellowship, which funds young people to leave college and build new things; his public skepticism of higher education, his support for Trump in 2016, and his funding of litigation against Gawker Media have drawn controversy.Open the full entry, who gave her funding of 100,000 dollars.⁠[3]

TechCrunch described her in August 2022 as “a chemist and Thiel Fellow”; Startupeable’s episode notes say that she left university and was selected for the Thiel Fellowship.⁠[6][9]

Bloomberg Línea wrote on August 31, 2022 that she, aged 22, was the chief executive and co-founder of MEDU Protection, which had raised US$4 million in a round led by MaC Venture Capital, with Michael Palank as the firm’s partner; the company planned to use the money to expand into the United States and to obtain a certification that would give the fabric of its apparel a “segunda vida” (second life).⁠[8]

TechCrunch wrote on August 30, 2022 that MEDU had raised $4 million in seed funding in a round led by MaC Venture Capital, with participation from Halcyon Fund and a group of angel investors including Ryan Shea. The article says the decision to go after venture capital was to gain partners that would help the company grow and that she felt MaC Venture Capital fit that bill; it says her personality, gumption and background as a chemist with family in the medical and textile industries made investing in MEDU “one of the easiest decisions I ever made” for Michael Palank, general manager at MaC Venture Capital.⁠[6]

TechCrunch wrote that the company was profitable, with revenue growing at a rate of 6x each month, and had deployed approximately 7,000 pieces of equipment since January, which she said was equivalent to 3 million disposables. It had approval in Mexico and was working with five hospitals there, and Michael Palank said MEDU was in one of the country’s biggest hospitals; it had doubled in size and was working with hospitals in New York and Los Angeles, and she planned to partner with up to 15 hospitals across the U.S. by the end of the year. The article says the fabric is certified level 4 AAMI PB70, that embedded NFC technology in the garments is tracked in real time to keep count of the 50 washes, and that after 50 wears a garment returns to MEDU facilities to be disinfected and converted into scrubs and sustainable packaging; MEDU was working on U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for its garments, which she expected later that year (Bloomberg Línea wrote at the same time that the product was authorized by the FDA); and the company aimed to replace more than 20 million single-use gowns by the end of 2022.⁠[6][8]

Contxto wrote on August 31, 2022 that this was the first financing round of the startup founded by Tamara Chayo and Alexis Garberis, and that she was also the CEO of MEDU Protection; its products included gowns, surgical hoods and coveralls that can be washed 50 times, the equivalent of more than 450 disposable items, each with an integrated NFC chip; the company was growing at a monthly rate of 6x, had shipped 7,000 kits that year, and was present in hospitals in Mexico and in Los Angeles and New York.⁠[7]

The article says that MEDU Protection had by then won 15 national and international awards and recognitions, among them the United NationsUnited NationsThe United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945 under the Charter of the United Nations. It has 193 Member States, and its headquarters are in New York City.Open the full entry’ Social Enterprise Certification, the Santander X Global Award, and Yunus & Youth’s recognition of it as the startup with the greatest social impact in Latin America in 2021. Halcyon’s profile of her likewise says that Yunus and Youth recognized MEDU Protection as one of the 18 most important ventures in Latin America and that its international awards include the Santander Award for Entrepreneurial Innovation.⁠[8][4]

The article describes MEDU’s fabric as used for medical gowns, protective suits (“escafandras”) and coveralls, protecting against 99.9% of viruses and bacteria and washable 50 times, the equivalent of more than 450 disposable items; each garment contains an NFC chip that lets hospitals track the useful life of each piece accurately through an app, and the apparel is made entirely in Mexico in a process focused on sustainability. The article says the product is authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and by Mexico’s Federal Commission for Protection against Sanitary Risks (COFEPRIS), at “nivel 4 de protección biológica” (biological protection level 4).⁠[8]

In the article she estimates: “Estimamos que cada prenda reduce la producción de hasta 25 kilogramos de basura” (We estimate that each garment reduces the production of up to 25 kilograms of waste), and says hospitals can cut their costs by up to 90%. The article cites figures from Mexico’s INECC: each occupied non-COVID bed generates an average of 1.5 kilograms of waste a day, while a bed with a COVID patient produces 9 kilograms.⁠[8]

In an article by Arlene Karidis published on December 20, 2022, Waste360 writes that, at only 23, her ideas earned her one of six places in a Washington, D.C.-based accelerator for social business models, and that Hillary Clinton came to speak with the entrepreneurs.⁠[2]

The article says MEDU’s products were then in 35 hospitals in Mexico and the company had letters of intent from 15 U.S. hospitals, with plans to expand into the United States in 2023 and into Europe in 2024. MEDU had also developed software to track the use of personal protective equipment in real time and was working to integrate artificial intelligence into it to optimize inventory and find new uses.⁠[2]

Waste360 describes the products as washable, reusable gowns, full-body coveralls and masks whose fabric carries a coating that encapsulates bacteria and viruses, depriving them of oxygen and destroying them; the garments can be washed with soap and water up to 50 times without losing protection and worn more than 400 times. The article says that, on a life-cycle analysis, one garment can save up to 55 pounds of waste and about 0.133 gallons of water, and that hospitals can save about 80% of their costs by switching to MEDU’s products (the estimate Bloomberg Línea quotes from her is up to 90%). It adds that the technology meets the guidelines of COFEPRIS, Mexico’s regulator, and that the fabric is also approved by the “Federal Drug Administration” (so written), while MEDU was awaiting approval of the final products to be made with the material.⁠[2][8]

In the article she says: “PPE is protective, but it’s become less sustainable over the years,” and: “We can do better at taking care of ourselves and the earth. We need to do both.”⁠[2]

On July 8, 2025, Forbes México published its “30 under 30” profile of her, placing her in the health-care industry group of its 2025 “30 under 30”, giving her age as 25 and describing her as the founder and CEO of Medu Protection. The article says Medu produces and sells reusable medical protective equipment, that its antiviral gowns can be washed up to 50 times, saving hospitals hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment, and that Medu has donated more than 20,000 gowns to medical staff.⁠[3]

The article says she wants to set up a fund to finance sustainable and social-impact projects that are at a very early stage and need money, and to support more women entrepreneurs; she says there is much talent in Latin America that often goes unseen. On Medu’s future she said: “Me veo tocando la campana de la Bolsa de Nueva York” (I see myself ringing the bell at the New York Stock ExchangeNew York Stock ExchangeThe New York Stock Exchange is a securities exchange on Wall Street in New York City. It traces its origins to the Buttonwood Agreement signed by 24 stockbrokers in 1792, has used its present name since 1863 and has been owned by Intercontinental Exchange since 2013.Open the full entry).⁠[3]

Sources write her name differently: the Thiel Foundation’s announcement and Yunus&Youth’s profile give Tamara Chayo Romo; Bloomberg Línea, Halcyon, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, TechCrunch, Contxto, Startupeable and the Forbes México headline give Tamara Chayo, the Forbes México text also calls her “Chayo Romo” and gives her nickname as “Tamy”; Waste360 calls her Tamy Chayo.⁠[10][1][8][4][3][2][5][6][7][9]

The ages given in sources are as follows: the Thomson Reuters Foundation in July 2021 gives her as 21; the Thiel Foundation’s announcement of January 2022 as 22; Bloomberg Línea in August 2022 as 22; Waste360 in December 2022 as 23; and Forbes México in July 2025 as 25.⁠[5][10][8][2][3]

Halcyon’s profile describes her as a healthcare-focused entrepreneur who loves sustainability and making a positive impact in her community; it adds that she loves science, sustainability, nerdy talks and people, and that her “superpower” is “Connecting with amazing people and learning from them.” Forbes México writes that she considers herself “demasiado empática” (too empathetic) and wants to use this to support entrepreneurs and companies so that they have more impact.⁠[4][3]

In the Forbes México article she says: “Me he dado cuenta de que ser mujer y joven no es una debilidad, es un superpoder.” (I have realized that being a woman and young is not a weakness, it is a superpower.) Her advice to women entrepreneurs is: “Para que no tengan miedo de ser ellas. Si se ponen una careta, se cansaran de cargarla” (So that they are not afraid to be themselves. If they put on a mask, they will get tired of carrying it).⁠[3]

Startupeable’s episode notes quote her advice to young people thinking of leaving university to start a company: if they leave and fail, the worst that can happen is to “volver a la universidad” (go back to university); “Les aseguro que pueden volver, sus papás los apoyaran y la universidad siempre quiere más estudiantes.” (I assure you that you can go back, your parents will support you and the university always wants more students.) She also said: “Lo peor que te puede pasar al emprender es aprender.” (The worst thing that can happen to you when starting a company is to learn.)⁠[9]

Thiel Fellowship: Official website: https://thielfellowship.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[11]

Halcyon: Official website: https://www.halcyonhouse.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[4]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamara-chayo-bb0822122/ (opens in a new window).⁠[1]