Munich-based Planet A Foods, which makes chocolate without cocoa, has raised a $30m Series B round — defying a wider dip in funding for foodtech startups.
Planet A’s funding is co-led by Burda Principal Investments, a division of German media group Hubert Burda Media, and Zinitinus, which invests in foodtech. The company raised its $15.4m Series A, led by climate tech-focused VC World Fund, under a year ago.
Today’s round comes amid a drop in funding for foodtech startups in Europe. According to Dealroom, funding for food and agritech startups in Europe currently stands at $181m for 2024, down from a record $433m in 2022.
“The foodtech sector is experiencing a more cautious investment climate, with many investors adopting a ‘wait and see’ approach due to economic uncertainties,” says Maximilian Marquart, cofounder of Planet A.
Planet A’s product, known as ChoViva, replaces cocoa using a proprietary fermentation process and locally sourced ingredients like oats and sunflower seeds.
Cocoa cultivation leads to deforestation of tropical forests, leading to biodiversity loss and contributing to carbon emissions because tropical rainforests can store more than twice the amount of CO2 per hectare compared to land used for cocoa production.
Planet A has patented its ChoViva ingredient, which it sells to food manufacturers. Products using ChoViva are available in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and launches are planned for France and the UK in 2025.
It currently sells to companies including Lindt and Deutsche Bahn.
Planet A will use the new funding to scale up production in Europe, as well as the US.
Price parity
Unlike many startup-produced food alternatives, Planet A’s product sells at the same price as the one it replaces. “While cocoa prices are rising, the price development for sunflower seeds, that ChoViva is made with, is stable,” says Marquart.
Over the last few years, as inflation rose and consumer spending power declined, companies producing food alternatives priced higher than the original took a battering.
Planet A’s price parity will be one reason it has managed to defy the wider decline in foodtech funding — that and the fact that, unlike foodtech companies that have to wait to be green-lit by the regulators, Planet A is already able to sell.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/planet-a-foods-30m-series-b/
