US cacao brand Blue Stripes has raised $20 million in investment to produce upcycled cacao using the chocolate-making fruit. The Hershey Company, Whole Foods Market and Zintinus led the brand’s most recent Series B investment round, generating $20 million. Celebrity Chef Nick DiGiovanni has also joined Blue Stripes as a brand ambassador.
Blue Stripes aims to develop a more ecologically and economically sustainable cocoa supply chain. The whole-cacao brand has launched its Whole Cacao Chocolate Bars in the confectionery sector, focusing on producing environmentally conscious and nutrient-dense products.
From waste to value
“We believe that sustainability for the cacao industry comes from utilising all of the cacao fruit,” says Oded Brenner, Founder of Blue Stripes.
Blue Stripes utilises 70% of the cacao ingredient and adopts a production approach that strives to lower cacao fruit waste, raise the cacao fruit’s value and create a meaningful income increase for cacao farmers. It does this by using parts of the cacao fruit that are typically discarded as waste during traditional chocolate manufacturing.
“It’s not sustainable for the industry to use only 30% of the fruit, which are the beans,” Brenner added. Therefore, Blue Stripes created a process that uses 70% of the fruit that typically goes to waste to make products that also prioritise taste and nutrition, including cacao-based chocolate bars.
The US brand has also entered other perhaps surprising food and drink categories. Blue Stripes has developed Cacao Water, Whole Cacao Granola, Whole Cacao Trail Mix, Chocolate Covered Cacao Beans and Dried Cacao Fruit.
Creating a new chocolate category
Launched in 2018, Blue Stripes was developed by Oded Brenner, who also founded Max Brenner, a global chocolate retail company. The creator has previously been described as New York City’s Willy Wonka by Eater Washington DC as he expanded Blue Stripes to Washington. Alongside his co-founder, Aviv Schwietzer, the duo strives to transform the chocolate industry with their sustainable whole cacao approach.
Today, amid its latest multi-million investment, the company founders seek to form a new chocolate category that maximises cacao’s antioxidants, minerals and fibres, calling it a ‘superfruit’.
“For the last two decades of my career, I focused on showing people the whimsical and romantic side of chocolate,” says Brenner. That’s where the fun, innovative and Willy Wonka-esque side of chocolate production comes in. Now, he’s looking to merge this with pointing the chocolate-making process in a purposeful direction.
“In this next chapter, I am on a mission to change what happens behind the scenes of the cacao industry - reducing the negative cacao industry impact on the environment, improving the economic value cacao farmers receive for their work, and sharing the incredible functional benefits that the cacao superfruit has with the world,” adds Brenner.
Investment and celebrity support
Blue Stripes raised its latest Series B capital from Zintinus, which supports brands that develop innovative technologies in the food industry. The brand also received investment from one of the largest global chocolate manufacturers, The Hershey Company, the leading natural and organic foods retailer, Whole Foods Market, and additional investors, including DMG Ventures, Hamilton Lane and Praesidium.
Blue Stripes will use the investment to progress the company’s whole cacao process technologies, produce new products, raise distribution and
increase consumer awareness of cacao’s nutritional benefits for the chocolate industry as a whole.
Nick DiGiovanni, celebrity chef and entertainer with over 33 million followers across YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, has been appointed a brand ambassador for Blue Stripes.
In the latest move to combine celebrity with cacao, Nick’s role will see him use his social platform and presence to inform and educate consumers about the cacao fruit, including its use cases and functional benefits. “I’ve known Oded for many years and have always described him to others as the ‘modern-day Willy Wonka,” says Nick DiGiovanni.
R&D to progress sustainable cacao production
As Blue Stripes seeks to prioritise sustainable cacao production, its research and development (R&D) process involves using the entire cacao fruit, including its pulp and shell, in most of its products to maximise the use of the whole fruit and its nutritional values.
“We’re working on finding ways that will either use the liquid that is in the pulp while incorporating the dense dietary fibre that is in the shell and which enriches the products,” Brenner says.
Rather than how to grow cacao sustainably, current challenges in producing cacao sustainably revolve around how the fruit is used. “By utilising the entire cacao fruit, we’re creating new revenue streams for farmers who are able to triple the value of their crop,” Brenner adds.
As for how widespread sustainable cacao production will impact the confectionery sector, Brenner says, “I hope and strongly believe that more and more recipe creators will find the immense culinary potential that is hidden in the unknown parts of the cacao pod —there is an endless potential for innovation with the cacao fruit.”
