RIND Snacks, maker of functional and sustainable whole fruit snacks, has announced that it closed a $6.1 million Series A capital financing round led by Valor Siren Ventures (VSV), an early-stage investor in sustainability, food, food technology, retail, and retail technology, along with a follow-on investment from Melitas Ventures. Since launching in 2018, RIND has disrupted the dehydrated snack category with its “skin-on superfruit” that maximizes nutrition, minimizes food waste and helps combat childhood hunger through a newly launched school snacks campaign. With the fruit snack market projected to grow at an 8.4 percent CAGR through 2025, this new funding further positions RIND as a purpose-driven leader in a once sleepy category.
As an investor in disruptive, early-stage companies, VSV saw a natural fit with RIND. RIND grew revenues five-fold in 2020 and expects to more than triple sales this year while expanding its retail presence to over 3,000 locations. In addition, RIND has won placement across several leading D2C omni-channel platforms. This has resulted in best-in-class partnerships with the likes of Whole Foods Market, Wegmans, Meijer, CVS, Hungryroot, Imperfect Foods, The Fresh Market, FreshDirect, Giant Eagle, Erewhon, and Foxtrot.
With VSV’s support, RIND will look to accelerate its sustainable and upcycled product pipeline into adjacent categories and invest in expanded capacity to produce the next generation of delicious, nutrient-dense, zero waste snacks that consumers crave. The capital will also allow RIND to build a world-class team to support the continued fight against food waste. Having diverted more than 120,000 pounds of edible peels from landfills in 2020 alone, RIND is on track to significantly increase its impact in 2021.
“We view the fruit snack space as ripe for disruption. VSV shares our vision for awakening this category with a keen focus on function and sustainability, helping consumers both snack better and do better through the ‘power of the peel’. This capital will help us build an amazing team and accelerate our growth substantially, which will in turn enable us to continue our efforts to combat unnecessary food waste and childhood hunger,” says Matt Weiss, founder and CEO of RIND. “We are excited to partner with Valor Siren Ventures whose view of the snacking landscape aligns seamlessly with ours. VSV is a leader in supporting and building brands with an omni-channel and alternative distribution approach and has several large and strategic partners that represent exciting long-term opportunities for RIND.”
“We are thrilled to partner with RIND® as they scale their business,” said Jon Shulkin, partner and fund manager at Valor Siren Ventures. “In a short period of time, the RIND team has built an exciting and purpose-driven brand. By crafting highly nutritious and functional snacks that help reduce food waste, we believe RIND has the potential to build a great platform that is well aligned to consumer preferences for healthy, sustainable snacks. We look forward to working with RIND to help fuel their growth.”
