By Lynda Kiernan
Pioneering plant-based snack startup Biena Snacks announced it has secured $8 million in funding through a Series B led by MAW Investments. Additional investors partaking in the round include Blueberry Ventures, Centerman Capital, Tastemaker Capital, and New Ground Ventures.
As part of the terms of the investment, MAW Investment’s Peter Michaud will join Biena’s Board of Directors.
Biena Snacks was founded in Boston by Poorvi Patodia when she was pregnant and looking for healthier snack options. Through trials conducted in her own kitchen, Patodia developed a method to roast chickpeas while maintaining a light and crispy texture, as well as the protein, fiber, and nutrient content of whole chickpeas. Leveraging her experience with brand development for Johnson & Johnson, Patodia brought Biena to market in 2012.
The company offers two product lines: Roasted Chickpea Snacks, which are a leader in their category, and a newly launched line of Chickpea Puffs, which are exceeding sales expectations.
Available in ten flavor profiles: Sea Salt, Rockin’ Ranch, Honey Roasted, Habanero, BBQ, Cinnamon Crunch, Sour Cream & Onion, Thin Mints, Dark Chocolate, and Salted Caramel, each of Biena’s Chickpea Snacks is gluten-free, non-GMO, kosher, made in a peanut-free facility, and contains 5-6 grams of protein and 5-6 grams of fiber.
Today, Biena’s products are available in 15,000 retail stores across the U.S., and the company is on pace to see revenue nearly double year-on-year in 2019.
“Biena has been a progressive player in natural snacking since day one, getting ahead of the plant-based trend with their roasted chickpeas, while shaking up the market with their reinvented cheese puff,” said Peter Michaud of MAW Investments, a firm created by snack industry veterans behind iconic brands such as Snyder’s Pretzels, Kettle Chips, and Late July Organic Snacks.
“We have grown some of the top snack brands in the country, so supporting Biena – a leader in plant-based snacks with a strong growth trajectory – was an opportunity we couldn’t miss.”
A common theme throughout food innovation is the prominence of plant-based protein – a trend that is giving the once-forgotten chickpea new life on the market, and Biena is not alone.
In 2017, HIPPEAS, a producer of certified organic extruded chickpea puff snacks, announced it secured a $10 million investment from CAVU Partners.
This investment followed only a matter of months after the company closed on an undisclosed investment in a high-profile round that included Strand Equity Partners, a leading growth equity fund co-founded by Leonardo DiCaprio and Seth Rodsky. At the time, Joe Serventi, former barkTHINS EVP and current general manager of HIPPEAS, was an existing investor.
The following year, in December 2018, Israel’s InnovoPro, a startup claiming to be the world’s first food tech company to successfully produce a 70 percent protein concentrate from chickpeas, closed on a $4.25 million Series A led by Swiss retail giant Migros and Erel Margalit, founder and chairman of Jerusalem Venture Partners, a leading Israeli venture capital fund.
“The growing demand for plant-based protein is setting new records with every year that goes by,” said Taly Nechushtan, CEO of InnovoPro at the time. “We believe that developing a tasty, gluten-free food ingredient could provide the answer to the rising demand for plant-based protein products.”
Nechushtan went on to explain what sets chickpea protein apart from its rivals, saying, “While the chickpea protein competes against other plant proteins, it features a different behavior pattern. For starters, the production of chickpea protein is green, clean and eco-friendly. Our process comprises production of protein and starch.”
Furthermore, chickpea protein has the ability to function as an emulsifier and a foaming agent, giving dairy-free, egg-free, and gluten-free foods their desired texture without the need for added texturizing agents, according to Bakery and Snacks. And as developers continue to innovate new ways to use chickpea protein, a startup called Banza has begun commercializing chickpea-based rice and pastas.
Biena has carried chickpeas further into the snack category, launching a game-changing puff snack in three flavors: Aged White Cheddar, Vegan Ranch, and Blazin Hot™, that will be sold nationwide in 3,500 Whole Foods markets by the end of this year.
“Our goal is to make it easy for Americans to snack healthier by creating the next generation of nutritious, plant-based snacks,” said Patodia. “MAW’s category expertise will be invaluable as we build on our growth momentum as a brand.”