ISM ProSweets live: Planet A Foods target chocolate giants seeking alt-cocoa
30 Jan 2024 | Planet A Foods
ChoViva—a cocoa alternative based on fermented oats and sunflower seeds—has rapidly scaled up production and industry collaborations since Q1 of 2023 when it closed US$15 million in Series A funding. Max Marquart, co-founder and CEO of Planet A Foods, details how companies like Lindt, Rewe and Lufthansa have adopted the chocolate-like ingredient, ultimately saving on cost and carbon emissions.
This is Missy Green at ISM 2024.
I'm here with Max show Viva.
So Max, tell us a little bit about how Show Viva has evolved since the last ISM 2023.
Hi, Missy, thanks for stopping by.
Yeah, I, since we last met on, on Pro Suites back then, now we're here in ISM, a lot of things have happened.
First and foremost, and very important for us as a startup was the closure of our Series A financing round.
That already happened in quarter 1 last year.
And we closed $15.4 million US dollars with notable investors such as World Fund, Cherry Ventures, Omnes Capital, Feast Ventures, and some others that definitely helps us to fuel our growth in the company, not only in Germany but also internationally, and that financing allows us to do so many things and so many great things to grow the brand of Viva just above everything that we achieved now.
So that was in Q1 this year, Q1 last year, Q1 2023, yeah.
And now like since Q1 2023, for sure, a lot of other things have happened already with the money that we raised back then.
For example, we did, we did a rebranding last time when we, you remember when we talked on the last Pro Suites, we were still named No Cua and we changed the name Truviva.
The main reason was that we like talking to our customers in the industry, we realized that nokua, which is basically means no cocoa, is quite a negative branding, right?
And Choviva is a much more positive branding, kind of Viva la chocolate, next generation chocolate, just fits better to our kind of mind and mission that we have for the company.
So we changed our branding to Chuviva, as you can see now on for example here on my on my sweatshirt.
That was very important.
Secondly, with the funding, we closed or we finished our production plant.
I don't know when we last talked, we didn't have that, we didn't have it running yet.
Now we have it running.
We are fully certified, and we can produce up to 750 kg per hour in that plant.
So from being only kind of lab stage, like making everything in the lab, now we're kind of at a completely different level, being able to be kind of a reliable supplier to the food industry.
Like we really deliver now in real quantities, in big quantities, full certification.
We've got also halal, proveg, and we're working on koha.
What are some of the bigger brand collaborations that you've had in 2023?
In September 2023 was our first product that we launched with a partner.
We launched three cereals, like cereals slash granolas with the company Peter in Germany.
They use Choviva chunks in their cereals, vegan Choviva chunks, great cereals, unfortunately only available in Germany.
Then, in October 2023, we launched, a cookie with companyrison de Boukela.
And, I think in December 2023 we launched with Lufthansa.
So Truviva tablets are now available on every business class flight intercontinental, and in January 2024, like 4th of January, we launched with Lindt.
Kind of those are the 4 main releases that we had in the past, but we're not stopping there.
We're just currently preparing 10 more launches.
The next one will actually be, I've got a product here will be together with Reve, a product you can see it here.
It's a, it's a waiver product and it's actually launched under the private label brand of Reve.
So we're also, we're not only going brand, we're also going private label.
Is showviva something that makes sense for confectioners to use from a cost effective perspective, or how does it compare price wise?
Yeah, definitely.
So we are not only, now cocoa prices soared in the last time, but.
Also before soaring cocoa prices, we were cost competitive or cheaper than conventional chocolate, depending on the recipe.
So like with the prices going up since like over half a year, our advantage price wise is getting bigger and bigger.
Definitely.
So and to be honest, when we when we started the company, a lot of people said like, OK, cocoa is so cheap, how do you want to undercut it?
And now things changed and a lot of.
New customers are actually approaching us first because of the cost advantage and second because of sustainability.
So in a way, the cost advantage is fueling our sustainability agenda, which is great.
Have you seen some companies say they want to incorporate some show Viva but then also keep Cocoa?
Yes, for example, if you, if you look at Lindt, the Lindt product that was released 4th of January, that was a hybrid product with chocolate and Choviba, and I think this is for us it's very important to say that we're not against chocolate, right?
For us it's a perfect fit to also combinehoviba and chocolate, you know.
Sometimes we feel that the whole cocoare thing is a very emotional discussion that we're seeing out there.
A lot of people treat it like being like the electric car, kind of replacing the combustion engine car, but in our cases it's not true, right?
It's just another ingredient.
It can be used like nougat, for example.
It can be used like you know any other ingredient in combination with chocolate as a replacer or in any other way, right?
We're completely flexible and so yeah.
Like you have some numbers about how much emissions it would save.
It's very, very difficult to give definite numbers because it depends on the recipe on both sides.
Like you cannot compare apples with pears.
I would say if you, if you, for example, look at the vegan recipe that we have and compare it to another vegan chocolate recipe, we save up to 90% CO2 emissions.
But I said, this is a value that can depend on.
Where do you source your cocoa from?
What's your recipe?
So it's very difficult to say that this is a very absolute number of 90%.
It might be up to, yeah, so you could say up to 90%.
That's what that's what we say.
I still say, you know, like saying sometimes people approach us and ask us, you know, like how can that be true?
I'm sourcing my cocoa sustainably and I have my own plantation and you know, everything is shaded plantation systems and in that case for sure the 90%.
Do not hold right because in that case the cocoa is very sustainable and in a way the advantage might be smaller.
I think one of our kind of real big setting levers is the shorter supply chains, you know, like not having to transport something with a ship through the ocean, but being able to harvest in Germany or.
In the Czech Republic or in Belgium where you process it, so does that mean that Europe is going to be your focused market?
No, we are in Europe now, but we are currently expanding to the UK, so we have very promising conversations with retailers and brands in the UK.
And I think everyone can expect first products to launch in the UK within this year, so there's something upcoming, and then next will be most likely USA.
So we're working on the USA and some other countries to fuel a global expansion.
OK, thank you very much.
Thank you.
