Peeled Snacks Raises Capital for Produce Derived Snacking

Last week, plant-based snack brand Peeled Snacks announced the close of a round of fundraising led by Seurat Capital, with previous investors TSIC and Avondale also participating. Investment bank Whipstitch Capital served as an advisor to Peeled for the deal.

“The idea with going out to the market for this round was to get strategic investors, an investor that could really add value from an industry perspective. That’s what we liked about [Seurat], was that they aren’t just a straight up financial investor,” Noha Waibsnaider, Peeled Founder and President, told NOSH. “Their background is all in consumer packaged goods. They work with lots of companies in the food space on sales, marketing, trade promotions and they have a really great team that works on analytics and go to market strategies.”

As part of the agreement, Jill Brant, Managing Director at Seurat Capital, will join the Peeled Snacks Board of Directors.

“Seurat Capital is focused on finding ‘challenger brands’ — brands that disrupt categories with unique product platforms — and helping them reach their full potential,” Brant told NOSH. “We believe Peeled Snacks fits this vision of being a ‘challenger’ by combining real fruits & veggies with unbelievable taste and the highest nutrition standards.”

Waibsnaider said that Peeled will use the capital to grow its headcount beyond its 12 current employees as well as help with a marketing and distribution for their new Peeled Puffs line, which launches in stores next month.

The puffs, a plant-protein take on Pirate’s Booty, come in three flavors: butter and sea salt, nacho and aged parmesan. Peeled will launch a chili mango dried fruit as part of a new line representing the brand’s first foray into flavored dried fruits. To complement the new lines, the brand also has recently undergone a packaging redesign.

Waibsnaider said, the dried fruit line currently comprises the majority of the brand’s revenue, but with the new puffs acting as a complement to the brand’s Peas Please line, she believes revenue from salty snack product family will continue to grow.

Both Peeled’s salty snack products and dried fruit products are each sold in roughly 10,000 points of distribution.

Over the decade plus that Waibsnaider has lead Peeled, she said she’s seen the consumer desire for healthy snacks and competition to meet that need both grow.

“I think it’s really exciting how much is happening [in the categories]. On the one hand, yes it’s more competitive but on the other, one thing I learned from the dried fruit category is that when we started we didn’t really have strong competitors and it made it really hard to disrupt a category alone. Once we started having a few competitors and there were real players in the space, it made it a lot easier to have a conversation,” Waibsnaider said. “It’s really hard to light a fire on your own.”