October 25, 2021

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

True Essence, a new foodtech company, announced it has raised $5.25 million in capital through an A2 Series funding round that included Elevate Ventures, among other unspecified private investors. 

The company also concurrently announced the finalization of its first industrial licensing agreement with Greenleaf Foods – an organic juice bar and restaurant business.

True Essence began as an artisanal chocolate maker and the SoChatti chocolate brand, but has transitioned into an emerging foodtech innovator creating a more sustainable and flavorful global food chain through its food waste and shelf stability products and technologies.

“True Essence is trailblazing what it means to be a sustainable food company in 2021 and beyond,” said Bob Kirch, former CEO, Caito Foods and current managing partner, Kirch Equity Investments, and True Essence board member. “The company’s innovations are providing a holistic approach to a broken, unsustainable system and doing so in a way that prioritizes customer expectations for great tasting flavor.”

Leveraging the first-to-market technologies behind its groundbreaking flavor preservation and shelf stability achievements in the chocolate category, True Essence is aligning with partners at every stage of the supply chain, creating clean solutions to mitigate food waste while maintaining and preserving flavors.

“We’re living in a world where consumer demand for fresh food is increasingly at odds with our planet’s natural resources,” said Matt Rubin, founder and CEO, True Essence. “The average consumer doesn’t recognize the immense strain our global food chain is under to provide endless choice and supply of fresh foods, despite seasonality and unreliable variables like climate change or the global pandemic we’re still living through. With True Essence technology, we are realizing a future of food that is flavorful, accessible, nutritious, and naturally shelf stable.”

The company is actively testing and executing with more than 15 industrial company partners spanning a range of food and beverage categories, including juices and concentrates, fruits and vegetables, fermented products and beverages, herbs, species, and cannabinoids.

“The True Essence team’s groundbreaking approach to global food chain and innovation has an exciting runway with endless potential,” said Omar Robinson, an investor and one of the founding members of Sun King Brewing. “I am drawn to the unique way the team develops and launches products and technologies that will shape the future of food.”

The capital secured through this round will be implemented by True Essence to acquire the necessary equipment to expand its R&D bandwidth, and to scale the sales and distribution of its SoChatti chocolate and True Essence Fruit Nectars. It also will be better able to dedicate the needed resources for securing and supporting platform partners launching True Essence solutions and products into the market.

Its first licensing partner is Greenleaf Foods Inc., which is using True Essence’s Flavor Symmetry technology that removes water from fresh foods making them naturally shelf stable and less expensive to transport and store while maintaining their flavor. This technology is being applied to advance the pilot of Greenleaf’s 100 percent organic, shelf stable fruit and vegetable juice packet that when reconstituted becomes a fresh-pressed juice.

“At Greenleaf we’re committed to making and serving food that is not only good for your body, but also good for our planet,” said Garret Flynn, founder, Greenleaf Foods Inc. “Striking that balance in this industry is typically very difficult and extremely cost prohibitive.”

Flynn continued, “Thanks to this partnership with True Essence, we’ve been able to double down on our commitment to organic ingredients while reducing our operating costs and also providing consumers with options that are sustainably sourced, made and served. It’s really a win-win.”  

True Essence commented that this agreement with Greenleaf is only the beginning, that it is working with a number of other food and beverage companies to forge similar partnerships in a number of disparate categories – from spirits, to coffee, herbs, and spices.

“True Essence demonstrated throughout the innovation cycle that its platform technology can revolutionize food storage and preservation without the typical flavor and shelf-life sacrifices,” said Mark Gramelspacher, entrepreneur-in-residence, Elevate Ventures. “We believe this technology will create new uses for food while solving some very large problems facing today’s global food supply chain.”

– Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.