Food Conglomerate Forward Foods Becomes Starday, Raises $4M
Another day another food startup raising millions to disrupt Big Food. This time its Starday – formerly known as Forward Foods – grabbing $4 million in seed funding to take on giants like Nestlé with what they call a data-driven approach to product development. And look I know weve all heard the “were using AI to make better food” pitch approximately seventeen thousand times by now, but this one has some interesting elements that caught my attention.
According to TechCrunch, Equal Ventures and Slow Ventures co-led the round with participation from Haystack, Great Oaks Venture Capital, XFactor Ventures, ABV and a bunch of angel investors. CEO Chaz Flexman started the Oklahoma-based company in late 2020 after leaving Pattern Brands. Hes apparently been watching the whole digital grocery shift happen and thinks theres an opening for nimble companies that actually listen to what consumers want instead of just focus-grouping everything to death like traditional food giants do.
The Napster Moment For Food Or Whatever
Flexman called it a “Napster moment” for food which is certainly a choice of metaphor given how Napster eventually got sued into oblivion. But I get what hes saying – digital grocery went from single-digit market penetration to double digits basically overnight during the pandemic. People who never would have ordered groceries online before suddenly had no choice, and a lot of them stuck with it. That shift creates opportunities for brands that understand digital-native consumers.
The pitch is that Stardays technology can turn consumer data into actual products based on current trends and preferences. They test concepts, gather feedback, make adjustments – all before going to market. Supposedly this cuts product development time from 18 months down to about 6 months. Thats a significant advantage if true because traditional CPG companies move like glaciers. By the time they identify a trend, develop a product, get it through their internal bureaucracy, test it, and finally launch – the trend has often moved on.
The whole plant-based food revolution showed how slow incumbents can be to adapt. Beyond and Impossible basically created a category while the big boys were still arguing about whether plant protein was a real trend or just a fad. Starday wants to be the company that never misses those moments because theyre actually listening in real-time instead of relying on stale market research.
Their First Brand Is Actually Kind Of Interesting
Gooey Snacks is the first product out the door – an all-natural, low-sugar chocolate hazelnut spread without dairy or palm oil. Basically theyre trying to out-Nutella Nutella by making a version thats actually healthy without tasting like cardboard. Palm oil is a big deal for environmentally conscious consumers because palm plantations are destroying rainforests, and dairy-free opens up the lactose intolerant market which is bigger than most people realize.
Flexman says they plan to launch four or five brands over the next year including another one before 2021 ends. Thats an aggressive timeline but if their process actually works the way they claim, its achievable. The $4 million will go toward building out the team (from 4 to 7 people initially), developing retail partnerships, and expanding their data and forecasting capabilities.
The global food and beverages market is expected to hit $7.5 trillion by 2023 so theres plenty of room for newcomers who can figure out what people actually want to eat. Whether Starday becomes a real threat to Nestlé or just another venture-backed food company that flames out remains to be seen. But the bet theyre making – that data and speed can beat scale and distribution – is at least an interesting one to watch play out.
