Cocoa-free chocolate maker Foreverland has raised €3.4M ($3.76M) in a seed funding round to open its first production facility for its carob-based Choruba alternative.
Puglia-based startup Foreverland has got investors’ tastebuds tangling with a €3.4M ($3.76M) seed round to scale up production and expand distribution for its carob-based chocolate alternatives.
The financing round included the likes of Grey Silo Ventures, Eatable Adventures, Kost Capital 2100 Ventures, Newland Syndicate, and Moonstone, among others.
The Italian company is among an expanding crop of cocoa-free chocolate producers looking to lower the environmental impact of the world’s favourite sweet treat. Foreverland’s product, which has been rebranded from Freecao to Choruba, is made from a base of carob and grains mixed with sugar and vegetable fats.
“These funds will primarily be used to set up our first production facility in Puglia, expand into new markets, and accelerate the development of new products featuring Choruba,” Giuseppe D’Alessandro, co-founder and CMO of the brand, told Green Queen. “We’ll also continue to invest in R&D, particularly to enhance the scalability and versatility of our ingredient, Choruba.”
In a joint statement, Grey Silo Ventures managing partner Giacomo Fanin and investment manager Matteo Leonardi said: “We spent over a year assessing the (alternative) chocolate sector in all aspects, and when we found out and started digging in Foreverland’s technology we knew that it could tick all the boxes to emerge as a category-defining business.”
