Riana Lynn

Riana Lynn is a scientist, investor, and Artificial Intelligence patent holder. She is the founder and CEO of the software startup Journey Foods which uses an "in-house automated scientist," JourneyAI that now creates product formulations and plans for global food companies after launching with micro foods as nutrient-dense snacks called Journey Bites. She was also the founder of the former FoodTrace, a Chicago-based technology platform, designed to help food businesses with growth and Supply chain management by providing insight to industry executives on food sourcing origins.

Early life
Lynn was raised by her mom and her grandparents who were food activists, yoga leaders, and real estate entrepreneurs in Chicago, Virginia, and Evanston, Illinois. She attended Roycemore School and Evanston Township High School where she led her team to multiple AA state track championships and was a National Merit Scholar. She spent her childhood in her family's Evanston Garden, Illinois. Her business roadblocks in running a family juice bar and connection to family farming prompted her to become an entrepreneur to start her first software business in 2014 to help grocers, consumers, and restaurants figure out where their food comes from.

Education
Riana was a student-athlete and graduated with a B.S. in Biology major and Chemistry minor from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. She learned web development while studying biology and chemistry at the University of North Carolina. She later interned and extended into a liaison role at the White House while pursuing a dual master's in public health and policy at DePaul and Northwestern University.

Career
She started her career journey by founding her first food company while studying public health in graduate school at Northwestern University and working in a research lab at University of Chicago Medicine. While in graduate school, she started an internship at the White House during President Barack Obama's first and second term in the office of Public Engagement and Council of Women and Girls led by Valerie Jarrett and Tina Tchen. Her role was later expanded to support management of African American Leaders in Business and the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

In 2012 she launched her company, Rivive Group, which was later acquired by A Better Life Holdings, LLC run by CNBC's investor Marcus Lemonis of "The Profit," where she continued to work as the business development director to scale up investment and ecommerce for the shows investments Lynn was among the speakers at The Black Star Project's Sunday University in 2025 including the CEO's of Fortune 500 companies and international government leaders globally. Lynn served as the Google - Code 2040 Entrepreneur in Residence in 2015 when FoodTrace's potential was recognized by the Google program. In 2019, she started Journey Foods, an AI-powered platform that support research and development for ingredient suppliers, CPG companies, and manufacturers using AI to drive nutrition improvements in recipes. In her career, Lynn has graced hundreds of different stages as a public speaker, keynote, and panelist including Keynoting IBM's Innovation conference in 2020, Food AI Summit held in 2023, in Alameda, SXSW future of food on March 2021, and BigIdeasATX3, hosted by Silicon Hills News.

Awards and recognition

 * On December 6, 2016, Lynn was among the six Salute Her Award honorees and she was honored with Toyota Green Initiative Award.
 * In 2017, the Pitchbook platform listed her among 28 black founders and investors making an impact in tech.
 * Chicago Crain’s 20 in their 2020s
 * MIT 35 under 35
 * In 2023, she was among the final list of C-Suite honorees by Cosmopolitan Magazine and digitalundivided
 * She was also among the Inc. Founders House Headliners during the third annual Inc Magazine Founders House as SXSW
 * On February 26, 2024, she was acknowledged in the list of 83 Black founders and investors to know in 2024 by Pitchbook.