The Checkout: Awakened Foods Secures Investment; Good Catch Takes on Subway

Welcome to The Checkout: an express lane for weekly news you need to know, always 10 items or less.

Awakened Foods Secures Investment from Clover Vitality

Snack company Awakened Foods announced this week it had secured investment from growth equity firm Clover Vitality. The Colorado-based company did not disclose the dollar amount invested, but said it was a “significant investment” less than $2.5 million (the total amount the company seeks to raise).

Awakened was founded in March as a result of a merger between Ka-Pop Snacks and Bubba’s fine foods. Ka-Pop, launched in 2018, markets Ancient Grain Popped Chips and Puffs, while Bubba’s, launched in 2014, offers keto-friendly snacks and granolas. Though the two companies have maintained their individual brands, they now share marketing, sales and operations support, with both utilizing a production facility in Loveland, Colorado.

CEO Dustin Finkel said the Awakened team appreciates the deep experience Clover Vitality has in the industry, particularly with brands who operate their own manufacturing. The firm, which has invested in brands such as Tia Lupita and Blake’s Seed Based, counts Enjoy Life co-founder Bert Cohen and investor Alex Schneider, who has invested in brands such as Dang Foods and Cleveland Kitchen as partners.

“They understand that the biggest competitive advantage small businesses can have is the ability to quickly innovate and move with markets,” Finkel said.

According to Finkel, the company plans to use the funding to fuel its marketing efforts for both brands in its portfolio. To support Ka-Pop’s expansion to four divisions of Kroger, the company plans to implement shopper marketing programs. Awakened is also planning marketing support for new product launches in store and online, with 20 new products slated to debut across Bubba’s Keto portfolio and Ka-Pop over the next nine months, he said.

Nestlé Explores Cultured Meat Technologies

Nestlé announced this week its plans to explore emerging technologies in cell-based meat with the help of several external partners.

One of these partners will include Israel-based cultured meat start-up Future Meat Technologies, which is already working with scientists at Nestlé Research in Lausanne, Switzerland to explore cell-based meat ingredients that “do not compromise on taste or sustainability,” the company said.

Founded in 2018, Future Meat Technologies secured $26.75 million in funding earlier this year. At the time, the company also announced it had gotten the price of developing a cultured chicken breast down to $7.50.

“For many years we have been investing in our protein expertise and the development of proprietary technologies for plant-based meat alternatives, allowing us to continuously expand our wide range of tasty and nutritious products with a lower environmental impact,” Reinhard Behringer, Head of the Nestlé Institute of Material Sciences at Nestlé Research said in a press release. “To complement these efforts, we’re also exploring technologies that could lead to animal-friendly alternatives that are nutritious, sustainable, and close to meat in terms of taste, flavor, and texture.”

Though Nestlé did not specify any particular applications or goals, Bloomberg reported earlier this week that it’s developing products that would blend cell-based meat and plant-based ingredients.

Nestlé already offers plant-based meats such as bacon, burgers and grounds through its Sweet Earth brand in the U.S. and Garden Gourmet brand in the U.K., though this is the company’s first foray into cultured meat. No cell cultured meat products have launched commercially in the U.S. as they still await regulatory approval from the FDA and USDA.

Good Catch Takes on Subway With New Campaign

Plant-based seafood maker Good Catch yesterday launched a new marketing program designed to reach new consumers. The company handed out sandwiches made with the company’s fish-free tuna in New York City, London and Austin in front of several locations of sandwich chain Subway. The #FishFreeForGood campaign follows a New York Times investigation into the contents of Subway’s own tuna salad, with lab testing of product samples finding no tuna DNA present.

The company handed out subs to passersby from a food truck labeled with “Our Way” (stylized like Subway’s logo) offering “footlong tuna subs with no catch,” encouraging consumers to tag the sandwich chain in images of the subs on social media. While the campaign called out Subway in particular, Good Catch CEO and chief culinary officer Chad Sarno said the larger focus was calling attention to the destruction of commercial fishing through bycatch and environment damage, presenting its fish-free seafood as an alternative.

“Our mission is to make plant-based seafood that’s good for the sea and all life who call it home,” he said. “With the Subway news grabbing headlines across the globe, this is the perfect moment to inform people that there is a better way to enjoy the taste and experience of delicious seafood without harm to our oceans. We want to encourage Subway, and other businesses, to add fish-free options for goodness to all.”