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Turning sunflower seeds into sustainable , cocoa - free deep brown has netted Munich - based B2B food for thought tech startupPlanet A Foods(formerlyQOA ) a $ 30 million Series B financial support bout . Now , the Y Combinator alum is gearing up for industrialisation , with the funds set to be deploy to scale its production capacity by around 7.5x . The round fast follows a$15.4 million Series A back in February .
presently , the startup is producing 2,000 tons of ChoViva , as it calls its cocoa - free , lower carbon chocolate alternative , per twelvemonth . It plans to step that up to over 15,000 tons as it add up capacitance and kicks off external expansion outside an initial ternary of European market .
Opening its first U.S.-based production facility is on the card . build on the three local market ( Germany , Austria , and Switzerland ) where its chocolate relief is already in food product that place to tempt sweet - toothed consumers , it is also eyeing launches into the U.K. and France during the first twenty-five percent of 2025 . brand buying into ChoViva so far include Lambertz , Lindt , Rewe Group , and even the German caravan operator , Deutsche Bahn , which doubtless pop a lot of coffee treats on customers ’ tea trays every daytime .
So far , the inauguration has around 20 client for its alt chocolate ingredients , mostly major European nutrient manufacturer but also some U.S. brands . As it grows electrical capacity , it ’ll be aim to tally more strategic partners too .
Cocoa, not so sweet
The problem Planet A Foods is tackling is spend a penny a staple unfermented treat ( coffee ) less of an environmental horror . Traditional cocoa - based coffee production raises serious sustainability publication , since the crop grows in areas with rainforest , which can be cut down to make direction for cocoa bean plantation . orbicular requirement is also outstripping an increasingly fragile ( and ethically fraught ) supply , leading to hyperbolic costs and fear for the future tense of the cocoa bean in a quickly warm humanity .
Supplying the solid food industry with an alternate chocolate - esque ingredient that — just like the real deal — can be bake into or close up onto bite products like breakfast grain , confectionary , and cake is Planet A ’s mission . And it ’s not a trivial finish : The inauguration reckons an one-year toll of some 500 million tons of CO2could be avoided through switching bulk cocoa production away from chocolate bean to its more sustainable method that avoids disforestation and localizes ingredients sourcing .
The ingredients it uses to farm ChoViva have been selected in part as they can be grown topically ( oats are another of its staple ) — hence it claims a carbon footprint that ’s up to 80 % lower than conventional umber ( but note that higher adhere is for the vegan version of ChoViva which , unlike other blends , does n’t contain any Milk River products ) .
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“ We ’re not against cocoa , ” stresses co - founder and CEO Dr. Maximilian Marquart , one one-half of the buddy - babe founder squad behind Planet A Foods . CTO Dr. Sara Marquart is the nutrient scientist who acquire the process for make the cocoa - free chocolate . “ That ’s very important . So we ’re not take away your [ premium ] chocolate . We ’re after all the snacking applications — [ confectionary such as ] M&Ms , Snickers , Mars , Bounty , you love , all that stuff . ”
Premium chocolate is a flyspeck marketplace compare to the bulk business of mass market confectionery that Planet A Foods is targeting . And in this domain , where environmental degradation occurs at terrible scale , the quality of the chocolate that ’s used is broadly lower , often because it ’s lower in literal cocoa - capacity — hence [ Maximilian ] Marquart argues there ’s no difference between how ChoViva tastes , and the stuff consumer are routinely being sold in aggregative market products . “ It ’s undistinguishable , ” he advise .
“ My baby Sara . . . found out that actually 80 % of the typical chocolate flavor fall from theprocessingof the chocolate bean and not from the beans itself — so . . . if eight out of 10 flavour are actually coming from ferment roasting , why do you need cocoa beans ? ”
Scaling for impact
The economics also make ChoViva an attractive switch for the industrial food for thought industry , as the inauguration distinguish it , since the product is not capable to the price volatility that can impinge on cocoa bean as a modified resource . But for such a electric switch to happen , the startup needs to be able to acquire its alternative at the volumes that food giants demand — so there ’s a long road of scaling ahead for the squad .
At this point , the yield capacity for ChoViva still stand for an incredibly tiny fortune of the global cocoa bean harvest — which [ Maximilian ] Marquart short letter is between 4 million and 5 million loads annually . So it will require gargantuan leaps in output mental ability to have the massive positive sustainability change the Marquarts need .
“ We ’ve already acquired the machines [ for this stagecoach of industrial enterprise ] . So we are already in the exfoliation - up ravel , and we have some genuine industrial client already , so we ’re currently just trying to cope with the need in Europe , ” he says , adding : “ We ’re automatize . We ’re meliorate the processes . We are also commissioning young machines . Plus , we are presently planning another facility in the States . ”
They are also exploring how the business might respond to postulate from Asia ( [ Maximilian ] Marquart encounter to be on a concern trip to Japan when we talk ) . But he says they also recognize that , as a startup , they do postulate to focus , too .
“ We ’re a inauguration . . . we ’re not naive . So we ca n’t conquer the earth alone , ” he tell TechCrunch . “ I think U.K. and U.S. are the main market place where we will expand . However , in Asia we have a lot of demand , so we ’re presently investigating what we do here — what we can do alone , and together with partners finally . ”
Supply chain all-nighters
Being in the ( quasi ) chocolate - making stage business might conjure up quaint picture of gamey - hat chocolatiers lightly whipping raft of angelic stuff in charmingly rustic environs . But do n’t be fooled : the job of fabricate ChoViva is already sudate toil .
Having everything in seat to be capable to precisely produce ton of cocoa - free chocolate to ship out just when customer ask it has required the founders to rive some all - nighters at the plant . And [ Maximilian ] Marquart says a big focus for this tranche of scaling is automation — so they can reduce the risk of human errors causing supply mountain range vexation .
We log Z’s under those machines . . . Every day our life is a hell given the challenge that we have in the supply mountain range . ”
“ I think presently we ’re at a scale — industrial scale — that no one else is , ” he suggests when asked about the competitive landscape for cocoa - free chocolate . Other startups he name - checks are Foreverland , Nukoko , WinWin , and Voyage Foods . They are using various methods and base ingredients ( include cereals , liberal beans , carob , grapeshot seeds , and more ) to fuse up rival chocolate - free burnt umber products . So there ’s a range of approaches in gambol .
In this context , and , indeed , for almost any kind of startup , succeeding “ take more than just developing a product ” — or , in this example , an ingredient in a lab — and [ Maximilian ] Marquart says this invention element represents only 5 % of the challenge they ’ve set themselves .
“ The primary challenge lies in make up yield , building up quality direction , build up the supplying chain . Every Clarence Day , two 40 - ton lorries entrust our factory with our ware . And that ’s something that someone else require to figure out . It ’s really a challenge , ” he emphasizes , add : “ Sara — my baby — and I , we slept under those automobile . We really figured out the supplying chain . It ’s a large hassle . Every daytime our life is a sin given the challenge that we have in the provision chain . ”
“ Most of the other competitors , they have great products , but they call for to impart that into reality , and take to be really able to fork up it to their customers , and that lies in the lead of them . It ’s fabulously hard to rescue 40 wads of burnt umber to a customer in time , at the right place , at the correct formula , the proper tone . ”
major planet A Foods ’ Series B was co - lead by Burda Principal Investments and Zintinus , with involvement from AgriFoodTech Venture Alliance , Bayern Kapital , Cherry Ventures , Omnes Capital , Tengelmann Ventures , and World Fund .
R&D
Scaling away , backing will also go on further enquiry and evolution , as the team is put to work on an alternative to cocoa butter , which is another key ingredient for the intellectual nourishment industry . Being able to offer a replacement for palm oil is another goal , as that also make huge sustainability problem . The startup also believe its coming could lick to replace other specialty fat that are used in food output , such as stearin , an animal fat , or coconut vegetable oil , per [ Maximilian ] Marquart .
“ [ Sara ] develop a kind of full fermenting program where we can make bio identical coco butter , ” he mark , saying bio identical in this setting “ means the right mouthful , the right snap , the right melting point , the right place . ”
“ With our fermentation engineering , we can offer a bio identical drinking chocolate butter using fermentation at a much lower toll than conventional cocoa butter , and that ’s really a game changer in the time to come , ” he suggests . “ I think we ’re the only caller that is actually capable to grow hot chocolate butter using ferment at a lower damage than born drinking chocolate butter . ”
There ’s an additional challenge here , though . For one interlingual rendition of the cocoa butter , which [ Maximilian ] Marquart evoke grant the best exercise set of properties , they use precision fermentation . It ’s a biotech method acting that affect genetically organize microorganisms . This version of the product has to be approved as a novel nutrient before it can be sold . And since European regulation are more stringent , he intimate it could come to the U.S. market first .
