Hot Stuff: Fly By Jing Brings in $12M to Scale Brand & Retail Presence

After moving from online into retail last year modern Chinese food brand Fly By Jing announced today it raised an additional $12 million in funding to fuel continued expansion primarily in conventional grocery stores.

Existing investor Prelude Growth Partners and Pendulum, an investment and advisory firm for leaders and founders of color, were the two largest contributors of capital, with entrepreneur Dave Gruntman, Palm Tree Crew and numerous other angel investors also taking part.

“As a founder, and someone who did everything myself in the early days, it’s a constant evolution of thinking bigger,” founder and CEO Jing Gao said. “Bringing on private equity investors is an example of allowing others to help me propel my vision forward.”

The capital, Gao said, will be used to drive further expansion mainly in conventional retailers, including Kroger and Albertsons in the coming months. After launching in stores last year, the company has achieved a 50/50 split in revenues between retail and D2C; this year, Gao expects that ratio to rise even further, closer to 70/30.

“The next period is really about figuring out the transition to a true omnichannel brand,” Gao said. “Our next phase is about really establishing a brand for everyone, and not just to coastal cities, not just for the foodies, but really an everyday item..like sriracha and Heinz ketchup.”

Since its $5 million raise in 2021, the company has grown its door count to 4,000 retailers including distribution in Whole Foods, Sprouts, Target, Costco and Wegmans.

Gao said she originally wanted to focus on the natural retailers to start; Target however, offered to collaborate with the brand on how it could address the “problem” of the “ethnic” aisle, which segregates certain items away from their conventional counterparts. The chain agreed to test Fly By Jing’s Chili Crisp in the hot sauce aisle, though sales data later showed that it performed better in its original placement in the Asian food set.

“It’s not just us, there’s a rising tide of founder identity and mission driven brands that are now starting to pop up in the ethnic aisle. It’s no longer the stale aisle that people didn’t really go down — it’s actually a destination,” Gao said. “That was actually a big unlock for us. There’s been a reclamation of the ethnic aisle that we’ve been a key part of.”

Gao also has a cookbook, The Book of Chili Crisp, coming out in 2023, which she believes will also help drive awareness and understanding of the company’s signature product.

The plan, Gao said, is to eventually build out a larger platform of products, likely more condiments. Online, the company will continue to offer a larger “pantry” of products, such as a wider array of spices, hot pot bases, black vinegar and dumplings, which Gao says serve as a vessel for its sauces. In retail, Fly By Jing wants to focus on shelf stable products that can be merchandised in the same set. Earlier this year, it introduced an extra spicy version of its chili crisp in Whole Foods. Another D2C product, Chilli Crisp Vinaigrette, could also make the jump into retail.

To support the growth across product types and retailers, the company has also grown its c-suite, recently bringing on former Follow Your Heart CFO Matt Dunaj as its COO/CFO and former Sovos Foods VP of sales Jason Parasco as its chief commercial officer. Fly By Jing also recently earned B Corp certification.

Gao herself is dedicated to continuing to push the CPG industry on its acceptance of new products and brands created by female, BIPOC and AAPI founders. As an example of the hurdles Fly By Jing has had to overcome, Gao said the reason why the brand went D2C initially was simply because retailers would not give the product a chance.

“As we have proven ourselves again and again, there’s finally more and more people giving us a shot, and giving others a shot as well, which is kind of this idea of the rising tide. I think that all we can hope for is progress — and we are making progress in the right direction,” Gao said. “There’s excitement, which really, I would say, we, along with other brands like us, created ourselves. We really had to exert ourselves in order to make this happen.”