Protein potential: Stryve Biltong secures US$10m investment to accelerate brand growth

20 Sep 2018 --- Protein snack brand, Stryve Biltong has received a total investment of US$10 million from Meaningful Partners, an investment firm focused on purposeful and mission-oriented consumer-facing challenger brands, and Murano group, a privately-owned holding company, among others.

Stryve Biltong is a fast-growing protein snack brand that specializes in biltong, high quality sliced beef that is cured, as well as chicken and turkey bites and beef and turkey sticks. Biltong is positioned as a clean and paleo-friendly alternative to traditional beef jerky that is high in protein with little to no carbohydrates, sugar, nitrates or additives. This investment will enable the company to aggressively build awareness for biltong meat snacks, accelerate its marketing efforts and build its new manufacturing and distribution facility.

“This will be a huge opportunity for us to keep up with our significant product demand and scale our business to make biltong more accessible everywhere in the US,” explains Gabe Carimi, Stryve Biltong CEO. “We’ve already shown tremendous growth since we started in the summer of 2017 and we’re ready to take our expansion to the next level.”

The funding builds on an exceptional year for Stryve Biltong, which saw a rapidly growing roster of customers including CVS, GNC, Vitamin Shoppe, Central Market, Walmart and more. This funding is a significant catalyst for Stryve Biltong to become the leading brand in biltong.

Jake Capps, Founder of Meaningful Partners, adds: “We are excited to have the opportunity to partner with the outstanding team at Stryve Biltong. They have a differentiated and phenomenal tasting product that is truly good for you in a fast-growing snack category. We have great confidence that the team will continue to grow Stryve Biltong to become a leading meat snack company offering specialty products, including biltong, to grocery, mass, club and convenience stores nationwide who are seeking a healthy snack alternative with a clean label and incredible taste.”

“This first round of funding is a major accomplishment for our young brand and a huge step towards bringing awareness about our amazing product to the US,” states Joe Oblas, Co-founder of Stryve Biltong. “This investment serves as a strong endorsement of our company and the tremendous potential of our brand.”

The meat protein space is certainly an exciting area for innovation. Stryve Bitong sees the need for people to include more protein in their diet and those who don’t want to rely on protein bars/powders. According to Paige Brown, Director of Marketing at Stryve Bitong, the Paleo diet, which relies on meat as a staple, has huge potential and here to stay. “We see a lot of innovative flavor profiles and the push toward no added nitrates and artificial preservatives and cleaner ingredients,” she tells FoodIngredientsFirst. 

“People are always talking about not getting enough protein in their diet and this is huge among women. Studies show many women don’t get enough protein which can lead to other health problems and half of the people over 50 don’t get enough protein. This means that many consumers turn to protein snacks when they are looking for something satiating,” Brown explains. 

“For us, creating snacks that fit into people’s specific dietary needs and specific food trends (keto, Paleo, etc.), snacks for active lifestyles is a key factor. Start-ups like us, usually launch their products with innovation because they are challenging the more established brands. They look for solutions that the big players may overlook or can’t execute on because they aren’t able to shift to the trends as easily as new businesses can,” she notes. 

There are further opportunities in this space, according to Brown. “We see ourselves getting creative with using biltong as a topping, in recipes and for hybrid snacks. In fact, we are launching our new Trail Mix very soon.”

“African food is becoming a big hit because people are looking for something different, and something healthy. We do have a unique opportunity to share the authenticity and influence that South Africa has on our biltong products. We chose to stick with flavors that consumers have proven to like in the jerky space for years, except for our Spicy Peri Peri flavor which is an authentic flavor of biltong from South Africa,” she concludes.   

By Elizabeth Green