Planet A Foods, a B2B sustainable components firm, introduced $15.4 million in Series A funding.
The brother-and-sister founding workforce of Drs. Max and Sara Marquart began the Munich-based firm to create a sustainable different to cocoa. When Ztoog initially wrote concerning the firm in 2021, it was going by the identify QOA.
The thought behind the identify change was that “there is no Planet B,” due to local weather change and different environmental threats to the cocoa producing trade, Max Marquart instructed Ztoog.
“We need to pay attention so that our Earth survives,” he mentioned.
The local weather woes have resulted in chocolate costs hitting a 45-year excessive in 2023, with cocoa bean futures buying and selling at $4,362 per tonne, up 84% from 2022. This is amid a global chocolate confectionery trade anticipated to develop 5.6% yearly by way of 2028.
Planet A Foods makes use of fermentation expertise to flip all-natural, regionally sourced components — for instance, oats and sunflower seeds — into its cocoa-free chocolate, ChoViva. The product contains a melt-in-the-mouth texture and full-bodied chocolate taste in milk, semi-sweet and white varieties. The product can be utilized in every part from baking to ice cream and comprises up to 30% much less sugar.
“I always say we want to be a ‘next-generation Cargill’ and a high-tech food ingredient company that delivers sustainable food ingredients to the industry,” Marquart mentioned.
The firm’s buyer base contains meals producers Griesson-de Beukelaer and Peter Kölln and airline Lufthansa. Last 12 months, the corporate additionally launched a number of merchandise with German retailer REWE, whereas chocolatier Lindt lately launched a vegan chocolate product containing ChoViva.
Marquart expects to hit an eight-figure income by the tip of 2024 as Planet A Foods plans a world growth of ChoViva, beginning with the United Kingdom, adopted by different European markets, Asia and the United States. The firm may even prolong its fermentation platform to different plant-based components with additional product launches anticipated for the 2024 first quarter.
He intends to use the brand new capital to rent further scientists to be a part of Planet A Foods’ 50-person workforce in Germany so as to scale manufacturing of cocoa butter and palm oil alternate options to an industrial degree. It has already scaled manufacturing at its facility to produce 750 kilograms of ChoViva per hour.
Meanwhile, the Series A spherical was led by World Fund with participation from an investor group that included Omnes Capital, Cherry Ventures, Mudcake, Nucleus Capital, Triple Point Capital and Feast Ventures.
“Sara, Max and the team have created the right product to tackle cocoa’s expansive climate impact,” mentioned Daria Saharova, managing associate at World Fund, in a press release. “Within three years they have turned a proof-of-concept into an industry-ready product on shelves, and established partnerships with global giants. The fact that this Series A funding round was oversubscribed despite a wider downturn in food tech investment is testament to their success.”