Infinite Meals Co has raised €1 million in pre-seed funding to advance its modern chocolate various, THIC (This Isn’t Chocolate), geared toward tackling sustainability and provide chain points within the chocolate trade.
The funding spherical was led by Nordic Foodtech VC, with participation from EIFO and Rockstart, and can allow the corporate to scale manufacturing, set up a pilot plant, and develop its workforce.
Infinite Meals Co’s THIC is produced from ‘upcycled’ brewer’s spent grain, a major byproduct of beer brewing, and serves as a sustainable, cost-effective various to conventional chocolate. Not like cacao, which faces rising provide challenges on account of local weather change, THIC is positioned as a scalable answer that reduces reliance on cacao and addresses environmental and moral considerations within the chocolate trade.
”Our core mission is to supply a scrumptious, long-term, and price-friendly answer for the present chocolate and meals industries. Hopefully in the future, we may also help coat each Mars bar with our various chocolate answer,” says Maximillian Bogenmann, Co-founder and CEO of Infinite Meals Co. “Till then, providing a flavour-first, sustainable various to chocolate on a big scale presents an enormous alternative to positively affect our present meals system. Partnering with a forward-thinking retailer like 7-Eleven offers us an incredible first step towards realising the Infinite imaginative and prescient.”
Based in 2022 by Maximillian Bogenmann, Christian Bach, and Matt Orlando, Infinite Meals Co leverages its founders’ culinary experience from eating places reminiscent of Noma and The Fats Duck. The corporate’s strategy to scalable upcycling options highlights how sustainability and indulgence can doubtlessly coexist, providing an answer to chocolate’s mounting challenges.
Infinite Meals Co has additionally introduced a key business partnership with 7-Eleven Denmark to carry its product to market. The collaboration will initially function a collection of THIC-based merchandise, together with a co-branded cookie with TIM’s Cookies, obtainable in all 180 Danish 7-Eleven areas by the tip of the 12 months.
Jesper Østergaard, CEO of 7-Eleven Denmark, expressed enthusiasm for the partnership: “7 – Eleven is continually exploring new alternatives and difficult the standard method of doing issues. In our eyes, THIC is a very thrilling product as a result of it’s a extra sustainable various to chocolate – with out compromising on nice style. We’re excited to supply our prospects THIC in our cookies as early as subsequent month – and with out giving all of it away , I’m fairly certain they will stay up for extra of this sort in our shops sooner or later.”
In response to Infinite Meals Co, the standard chocolate trade is beneath strain, with cacao costs greater than doubling over the previous 12 months on account of climate-induced disruptions within the world provide chain. Moreover, the sector faces vital moral and environmental points, together with deforestation, biodiversity loss, and labour exploitation.
THIC gives a possible answer, providing the identical style and texture as conventional chocolate however with as much as 80-90% decrease carbon emissions, in accordance with a current life cycle evaluation.
“Infinite Meals Co is a superb wager within the various cacao house. Their components playbook aligns superbly with our technique round backing founders fixing the deep underlying issues in our world meals system: Cacao is a local weather – threatened crop that may develop into costlier as provide turns into scarcer and demand continues to extend,” says Louise Rørbæk Heiberg from Nordic Foodtech VC. “We’re proud to help this high-powered and impactful workforce of their journey as they develop and develop, beginning wi th this key partnership with 7-Eleven. And let’s be clear , they’ve nailed the style and high quality from the start.”
