Limitless Meals Co has raised €1 million in pre-seed funding to advance its modern chocolate different, THIC (This Isn’t Chocolate), aimed toward tackling sustainability and provide chain points within the chocolate business.
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 increase its workforce.
Limitless 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 different to conventional chocolate. Not like cacao, which faces rising provide challenges as a result of local weather change, THIC is positioned as a scalable resolution that reduces reliance on cacao and addresses environmental and moral considerations within the chocolate business.
”Our core mission is to supply a scrumptious, long-term, and price-friendly resolution for the current chocolate and meals industries. Hopefully at some point, we can assist coat each Mars bar with our different chocolate resolution,” says Maximillian Bogenmann, Co-founder and CEO of Limitless Meals Co. “Till then, providing a flavour-first, sustainable different to chocolate on a big scale presents an enormous alternative to positively influence our current meals system. Partnering with a forward-thinking retailer like 7-Eleven provides us an incredible first step towards realising the Limitless imaginative and prescient.”
Based in 2022 by Maximillian Bogenmann, Christian Bach, and Matt Orlando, Limitless Meals Co leverages its founders’ culinary experience from eating places comparable to 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.
Limitless Meals Co has additionally introduced a key industrial partnership with 7-Eleven Denmark to convey 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 top of the yr.
Jesper Østergaard, CEO of 7-Eleven Denmark, expressed enthusiasm for the partnership: “7 – Eleven is consistently exploring new alternatives and difficult the normal approach of doing issues. In our eyes, THIC is a really thrilling product as a result of it’s a extra sustainable different 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’ll stay up for extra of this sort in our shops sooner or later.”
In line with Limitless Meals Co, the normal chocolate business is below stress, with cacao costs greater than doubling over the previous yr as a result of climate-induced disruptions within the world provide chain. Moreover, the sector faces important moral and environmental points, together with deforestation, biodiversity loss, and labour exploitation.
THIC gives a possible resolution, providing the identical style and texture as conventional chocolate however with as much as 80-90% decrease carbon emissions, in line with a latest life cycle evaluation.
“Limitless Meals Co is a superb wager within the different cacao area. 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 can 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 increase, 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.”
