Inside Sow Good’s Pivot to ‘Snackable’ Freeze-Dried Candy, Uplisting on NASDAQ

After selling their pet business – which included freeze-dried food products – in 2019, entrepreneurs Claudia Goldfarb and her husband, Ira, sought to leverage their expertise in freeze-drying technology with another venture. The result? Sow Good, a freeze-dried food company whose recent pivot from fruits, vegetables and ready-to-blend smoothies to candy has generated heightened product demand and accelerated retail expansion.

Launched in 2021, Sow Good started out by selling freeze-dried snacks, soups and smoothies that, although “delicious and amazing,” said CEO Claudia Goldfarb, didn’t sell. The Goldfarbs had constructed a 20,000 sq. ft. facility in Irving, Texas, where the freeze-dryers were built from scratch, to support the product line. To showcase this proprietary technology, Sow Good began looking for opportunities in more resonant product categories.

“We’ve got this beautiful facility, we’ve got this amazing technology, and we started looking at whitespace. Where can we take this incredibly powerful machinery and be disruptive?” said Goldfarb.  “If you would have ever told me that TikTok was going to shine a light on what that was going to be, I would say there’s no way.”

In Q1 2023, Sow Good shifted to focus on freeze-dried candy, in part drawing inspiration from the novelty product’s rising popularity on TikTok, where it has been tagged on more than 272 million posts. The unique treat format has gained attention for its intense flavor profile and crunchy texture resulting from the freeze-drying process that eliminates 99% of moisture.

Out of its Texas facility, the company produces and packages six core products in 4.2 oz. bags – including Rainbow Bites, Crunchy Bears, Cookie Bombs, Peach Perfect, Mini Bursts, Sweet Worms, Sweet Spheres, and Sour Spheres. The products are available on the brand’s website for $6.49 and in thousands of doors nationwide including retailers like Five Below, Target and Big Lots, among others.

To date, Sow Good has raised an estimated $20 million primarily through private placements. Goldfarb and her husband still held “a pretty large majority” of the company at the time of its recent NASDAQ debut.

At the Sweets & Snacks Expo earlier this month, a multitude of freeze-dried candy brands, including Kanpai Foods and AstroFreeze, exhibited on the show floor for the first time. Sow Good says one of its key differentiators is the quality control of its products.

“Because we’ve touched the product throughout the entire process, we’ve been able to really curate and create the right processes and packaging,” said Goldfarb, adding that the facility has humidity-controlled packaging rooms. “We really pay attention to the details that lead to the best quality and best customer experience.”

To keep up with demand, Sow Good is expanding its production footprint in Texas and ramping up its co-manufacturing partnerships in China and Colombia. During Q1 2024, the company reached a production capacity of 4.5 million units and posted quarterly revenue of $11.4 million, a 20% sequential increase from Q4 2023. Additionally, the company has reached profitability, with a Q1 2024 net income of approximately $510,000 compared to a net loss of $1.4 million in the prior-year period.

Earlier this month, Sow Good began trading on NASDAQ at $10 per share. According to Goldfarb, uplisting from pink sheets to the NASDAQ will expose the company to more institutional investors and drive shareholder value.

The uplisting, which generated $13.8 million, will increase Sow Good’s production capacity and introduce its products to more doors. By the end of this summer, the brand anticipates its nationwide store count will rise to approximately 16,000 with expanded placements in Target and new partnerships with the likes of Kroger, Dollar General and 7-Eleven.

“Last year was really about launching and setting our foundation. This year is going to be about strengthening and diversifying our distribution networks,” said Goldfarb. “The omnichannel strategy is super effective, and we’re gearing up to be in even more doors.”