hi, my name is arielle lok and i'm an:
repeat repeat repeat founder planting seeds to create a better world for future generations. i built western canada's most sustainable grocery service, a global 501c3 working on 'unconventional' climate solutions, and spent my teens in early stage vc covering food and tech. now i just keep doing the stuff.
areas that currently excite me include:
food systems, children and family policy, sustainable ag, decarbonization broadly, carbon removal, transit. basically anything that can get our future generations to net-zero and beyond by 2050.
founder/ceo in stealth... but not for long 2026
- feeding canadian children, including my own
in the last few years, i was:
founding team at cascade climate nov 2023 - nov 2025
co-founder, coo/cfo at peko [acq. freshprep]
jan 2021 - mar 2023
- built canada's leading 'imperfect' online grocer. rescued over 300,000lbs of produce and saved ~$1m for our users
- bootstrapped and scaled company to $[redacted] in ARR, ran all operations on/off ground, directly managed 12+ employees, lead business partnerships, legal compliance, B2B sales, and kept business alive when it did not want to live
- sold to freshprep feb 2023. peko now operates in BC and AB with expanded offerings! wahoooooo
jun 2021 - dec 2022
- sourced and successfully closed shopify's first international investments. conducted technical product diligence through customer and engineering calls. ran market/TAM sizing for regions in early stages of digitalizing payments & commerce
- notable transactions: WATI Series B. Nomba Series A. many anti-portfolio deals. more at shopify.vc
- main point of contact with 30+ portfolio companies
jan 2021 - dec 2021
sep 2020 - apr 2021
nov 2017 - jul 2019
i barely studied at:
mcgill university
2019 - 2023
but i like this stuff most about myself:
- silly dev stuff: comp20<3, trivial, o-range julep, covemail
- interests: ex-competitive gamer, mechanical keyboards, ssb melee, haruki murakami novels, recreational mathematics, capybaras, and recently pokemon tcg!
- awards: RBC's women of influence 2023, BC 30 under 30 2022, DMZ's women of the year 2022, $100k in scholarships & an awesome full ride [that i may or may have not lost in my 4th year] to mcgill!
