Planet A Foodsa B2B sustainable ingredients company, announced $15.4 million in Series A funding.
The founding brother and sister team of Drs. Max and Sara Marquart started the Munich-based company to create a sustainable alternative to cocoa. When TechCrunch originally wrote about the company in 2021, it was called QOA.
The idea behind the name change was that “there is no Planet B,” due to climate change and other environmental threats to the cocoa industry, Max Marquart told TechCrunch.
“We have to pay attention so that our Earth survives,” he said.
Climate woes result Chocolate prices at a 45-year high in 2023, with cocoa bean futures trading at $4,362 a tonne, up 84% from 2022. This amid global chocolate confectionery industry expected to grow by 5.6% per year until 2028.
Planet A Foods uses fermentation technology to transform all-natural, local ingredients—for example, oats and sunflower seeds—into cocoa-free ChoViva chocolate. The product features a melt-in-the-mouth texture and full chocolate flavor in milk, semi-sweet and white varieties. The product can be used in everything from baking to ice cream and contains up to 30% less sugar.
“I always say we want to be a ‘next generation Cargill’ and a high-tech food ingredient company that provides sustainable food ingredients to the industry,” said Marquart.
The company’s client base includes food manufacturers Griesson-de Beukelaer and Peter Kölln and airline Lufthansa. Last year, the company also launched several products with German retailer REWE, while chocolatier Lindt recently launched a vegan chocolate product containing ChoViva.
Marquart expects to achieve eight-figure revenue by the end of 2024 as Planet A Foods plans an international expansion of ChoViva, starting with the UK, followed by other European markets, Asia and the United States. The company will also expand its fermentation platform to other plant-based ingredients with further product launches expected in the first quarter of 2024.
He plans to use the new capital to hire additional scientists to join Planet A Foods’ 50-strong team in Germany in order to scale up cocoa butter and palm oil production to an industrial level. It has already scaled up production at its facility to produce 750 kg of ChoViva per hour.
Meanwhile, the Series A round was led by World Fund with participation from a group of investors 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 address the far-reaching climate impacts of cocoa,” said Daria Saharova, managing director at the World Fund. “Within three years they turned the proof-of-concept into an industry-ready product on the shelves and created partnerships with global giants. The fact that this Series A funding round was oversubscribed despite the broader downturn in food tech investment is a testament to their success.”
