RIND Raises $6M, Will Target Salty Snack Aisle

Rind Snacks wants to make getting your daily serving of fruits more ap-peel-ing and now it has more powder to make this goal a reality. The snack brand announced this week the close of $6 million in funding, an investment that will help the fruit-focused brand as it makes moves to expand into salty snacks.

The round was led by Valor Siren Ventures (VSV), the Starbucks backed fund managed by private equity fund Valor Equity Partners. Previous investor Melitas Ventures, also took part in the round.

Rind launched in 2018 with a line of chewy dried fruits — notable for the novel varieties it offered and for using the whole fruit (peels and all). Finance professional Matt Weiss first ran the business as a side product, but went full time in February 2020 after landing placements in Wegmans and Whole Foods, along with $2.25 million in funding. He soon hired his brother-in-law, another finance worker.

Valor, Weiss said, is the optimal partner to help the company build an omnichannel business, with the investment helping build the company’s online efforts while also investing in hiring and R&D. Weiss said the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic have only solidified his belief that successful brands must invest in new retail channels.

“We were able to, and have been able to, really build this business for a post COVID world…We were able to view the landscape, and lean in to where we saw the new emerging channels of grocery forming,” Weiss said. “I think the old model [is] ‘build a significant feet on the street game to attack 30,000 retail grocery stores’ and build that ground game [but that] is very expensive and can have a difficult ROI.”

Alongside key brick and mortar banners, he said, RIND has invested in, and will continue to look to, online retailers such as HungryRoot, Fresh Direct, Amazon and Imperfect Foods while also looking to expand to foodservice via Valor’s strong partnerships — the firm has relationships with Starbucks, Marriott and Nestle.

The cash will also go to supporting the launch of a new line of crunchy fruit chips later this summer. The issue: RIND’s flagship product of chewy dried fruit is a “slower eat” and comes in a gusseted bag, the chips will be sold in a pillow pack and are designed for quick consumption. Though the company is still finalizing pricing and retail partners, the hope is to eventually get the chips into the salty snack aisle, although for now Weiss is also pitching for space in the functional snack set.

“With Rind’s initial line, where we still see a ton of opportunity, we shook up a sleepy dry fruit category, and we made an improvement to that category, “Weiss said. “With Rind chips we think that we’re blazing entirely new category growth.”

Future iterations of the chips will include seasoned chips, which Weiss says will be closer to the savory end of the spectrum, and possibly chips made from vegetables.

Weiss is particularly excited about the company’s new orange chip, noting that orange juice is one of the highest consumed beverages and consumers are also eager for immunity boosting products. Rind’s chips, he said, can provide similar benefits while also including fiber and naturally occurring Vitamin C. However, it is yet to be seen if orange juice loving consumers — who often opt for pulp free varieties — will enjoy what Weiss said is a “bittersweet” taste of skin-on orange chips.

“If there’s ever a [snack] brand that I think can authentically deliver on an immunity benefit without added flavor or ingredients, we have the shot to do it,” Weiss said. “You’re getting those benefits, almost without seeking them out.”