June 12, 2016

California-based millennial-focused, organic food company, Back to the Roots® announced it has lifted its CircleUp crowdfunding campaign into a $10 million Series A led by Acre Venture Partners and including S2G Ventures and Red Sea Ventures.

Founded in 2009 by college seniors, Alejandro Velez and Nikhil Arora, Back to the Roots began with urban organic mushroom farming, but has grown its product line, adding 15 new products last year and bringing its portfolio to a total of 18 products including 100% stoneground breakfast cereals and Organic Breakfast Toppers. Today, Back to the Roots’ products are beings sold nationwide through 23,000 retailers and are being offered in 2,300 schools.

Early this year, Back to the Roots announced it had raised $5 million through a combination of public crowdfunding and private equity with $3 million having been raised through the online crowdfunding platform, CircleUp. The round was led by Tony Robbins’ and Peter Guber’s accelerator, Agency of Trillions, and included previous investors, TOM’s founder, Blake Mycoskie, Annie’s founder, John Foraker, co-founder of Sweetgreen, Nicolas Jammet, and Cliff Bar CEO, Kevin Cleary. The additional investment to the round, led by Campbell’s Ace Venture Partners and included S2G Ventures and Red Sea Ventures, lifted it to a $10 million Series A.

“We decided to take on additional funds to really accelerate our impact — being able to reach more families faster, and continuing investing in new product development to create more fun ways to reconnect with food,” Back to the Roots cofounder Nikhil Arora told Food Dive.

The funding will be used by the company to support the acceleration of product development, to scale up distribution, and for the continued growth of its team.

“Together, with our customers, team, investors, and retail partners, we’re excited to reconnect families back to where it comes from and make a lasting impact on the food system,” said Co-Founder, Alejandro Velez.