Core Foods Brings in $6M in New Funding

Snack brand Core Foods announced this week the close of another $6 million in venture funding from existing investors, bringing the one-year-old brand’s total capital raised to $12.5 million. The funding, president Brett Hartmann told NOSH, will be used to expand marketing efforts.

“[We’re] not just making consumers aware of a new brand in an existing category, [We’re] also trying to educate them about a new category,” Hartmann said. “It would have been a lot less expensive for us to launch a shelf stable bar, in an existing $3 billion category, but I just don’t think that’s where the consumer trends [are]… which is going towards fresh and more real products.”

Retailers, he added, are not yet consistent on where they slot fresh bars, so marketing dollars have to be spent on educating shoppers about where the bars are in the store..

Launched at Expo West 2019, Core Foods is sold in 5,000 stores including Whole Foods, Albertsons, Target, Walgreens and others.

Core also recently announced the launch of caffeinated bars; like the original line, they are oat-based, contain prebiotics and probiotics, but also have 65mg of caffeine, derived from coffee (in Mocha Chip Espresso and Caramel Coffee Crunch offerings) or tea (in the Strawberry Basil Tea bar).

“The energy category is seeing tremendous growth on the beverage side and that’s a little bit of what we’re trying to tap into as well,” Hartmann said. “I think energy based foods are still on the rise and what’s next.”