RIND Upcycled Fruit Snack Company Raises $6.1 Million in Series A Funding

RIND Snacks is a start-up that makes dried fruit snacks by upcycling parts of the fruit that would have been wasted otherwise. They recently announced that they raised $6.1 million in a Series A round of funding.

The New York-based company saw their revenues grow five-fold in 2020 and anticipate that their sales will triple in 2021 when they launch a new chip later this year.

RIND received funding from Valor Siren Ventures (VSV) and has Melitas Ventures as another investor.

VSV says that the company has built a purpose-driven brand and achieved exciting innovation in a short time frame.

“By crafting highly nutritious and functional snacks that help reduce food waste, we believe RIND has the potential to build a great platform that is well-aligned to consumer preferences for healthy, sustainable snacks. We look forward to working with RIND to help fuel their growth,” said VSV’s partner and fund manager, Jon Shulkin, in a statement.

The funds from this Series A will be used to accelerate the company’s sustainable and upcycled produce pipeline into other categories. Additionally, they will also invest in expanding the production of their snacks.

RIND has disrupted the market by introducing a “skin-on-superfruit” snack that maximizes nutrition and minimizes food waste. The company also has an initiative to combat childhood hunger through a campaign called Love is RIND that, together with local organizations and schools, will donate snacks to kids on weekends – which is usually a time that children have more limited access to food.

The company reported that in 2020 they helped save more than 120,000 pounds of food waste by upcycling possibly discarded food such as edible peels from landfills. If they stay on track, they hope to increase that number in 2021 significantly.

Related: Upcycling Food Waste: Trend or Here to Stay?

“We view the fruit snack space as ripe for disruption. VSV shares our vision for awakening this category with a keen focus on function and sustainability, helping consumers both snack better and do better through the ‘power of the peel.’ This capital will help us build an amazing team and accelerate our growth substantially, which will in turn enable us to continue our efforts to combat unnecessary food waste and childhood hunger,” said Matt Weiss, founder and CEO of RIND, in the same press release.

He also said that RIND “keep it real” because they provide consumers with minimally processed snacks. They hope that their new fruit chip line will add to their dried snack product line but will also function as a fast snack with shareability and versatility factors that pair well with dips and craft cocktails.

“They will also differ from freeze-dried offerings currently on the market in our use of more unique fruits, greater functional benefits, such as more vitamin C and fiber than other chips on the market, and a clean snacking experience without the powdery mess,” Weiss said.

The strategy and focus of RIND has been to target the consumer market of health and environmentally conscious shoppers. RIND has been monitoring the market for a few years, distinguishing trends and leveraging the benefits that fruit peel can contribute to the market.

The company increased sales during 2020 was due to the pandemic and consumers searching for immunity-boosting products that are sold on the company’s website and Amazon.