Regenerative, plant-based baking mix company Snacktivist Foods has raised $515k in an oversubscribed Seed round. Participating investors in the round include Prota Ventures out of Chicago, Woodland Notch, Kennebago Food Ventures, and Doornik Investments.
Snacktivist Foods is a women-owned, B-corp food brand specializing in dry baking mixes that are naturally plant-based, gluten free, allergen free, and regenerative. Not your typical baking mix, Snacktivist works to incorporate ancient grains such as Teff, Millett, and Sorghum from regenerative growers, while contributing to an agricultural movement away from GMO, government subsidized, and monocrop farming. Snacktivist Founder Joni Kindwall-Moore explains, “These unique crops have a market opportunity because of their nutritional profile and reduced appetite for inputs and irrigation even when not grown regeneratively. However, when you overlay the needs of the regenerative farmer and the qualities of ancient grains and legumes, one sees a natural fit in many farming systems.”
This makes Snacktivist Foods much more than a food brand – something their new investment partners understand well. Kindwall-Moore says, “This investor group sees the big picture vision and the impact that we can make on food and agriculture. They are especially keen on the role of drought resistant crops and our ability to make fantastic food from them, leveraging a new market opportunity.”
Prota Ventures Managing Director April Oury takes this further, “As investors, Prota Ventures supports tangibly impactful companies that promote human flourishing and the Snacktivist Foods concept is perfectly in line with this investment thesis.” She adds, “We invest in founders like Joni Kindwall-Moore who are “GEEK” – people who embody being Generous, Excellent, Empathetic and Kind while working hard to build successful and profitable businesses. Our excitement lies not only in eating these “good for you” food products, but this investment fuels the regenerative soil movement helping create the public’s market demand for products that meet their standards for health, quality, and the bigger picture of what they put into their bodies.”
The capital from this round will be deployed as a convertible note and Kindwall-Moore tells RFSI News that it will take the company over the $500ARR rate by end of year. The investment will be used to expand Snacktivist’s capabilities across the board. Half of the capital will be used for sales and marketing which will include rebranding and new channel launch, 15% will be used to on talent, 20% for new product launches, including QR code connected tool for packaging, a finished product line, and preparation for a snack line next year. The remaining 15% will be used to purchase product/ingredients.
Snacktivist products are already certified Women Owned, Gluten Free, Free From, Kosher, and Non-GMO. By Q1 2023, the company plans to also have some Regenerative Organic Certification (ROC) and Soil Regen Verified ingredients, as well. If that wasn’t enough to keep the Snacktivist team busy, Kindwall-Moore says that this fall they will be releasing a transparency tool on their packaging that will begin the process of allowing their consumers to experience how Snacktivist products travel from soil to plate through the food system and the impacts it makes on soil health, biodiversity, water and nutrition… yet another significant step for a little company making big systems impact.
Products can be found on the Snacktivist website, as well as at online retailer Thrive Market, and the brand is also in review with major retailers.
Sarah Day Levesque is Managing Director at RFSI & Editor of RFSI News. She can be reached here.