- Ten US-based, mission-driven brands will participate in the second year of the start-up engagement program
- Each receives a $20,000 grant, mentorship and hands-on collaboration with industry experts as part of 12-week growth-centric curriculum
CHICAGO, March 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SnackFutures, the Mondelez International, Inc. (Nasdaq: MDLZ) innovation and venture hub, today announced the ten mission-driven brands selected to participate in the CoLab class of 2022. The global snacking leader’s start-up engagement program is a collaborative effort between entrepreneurs and global experts to drive mutual growth through a 12-week curriculum. Each start-up also receives a $20,000 grant.
CoLab, which successfully completed its first class last year, leverages the full power of Mondelez International’s leadership and expertise, along with SnackFutures’ ecosystem of partners. The curriculum is deliberately curated to provide emerging brands with resources and information typically needed in early stages of growth – including consumer data and innovation insights, as well as coaching and support in operational areas such as manufacturing, packaging, ingredient sourcing and marketing. In turn, Mondelez International gains a closer pulse on trends and potential investments.
The mission-driven brands selected for the CoLab Class of 2022 are:
- Bunny James Boxes: Realizing that eating in the workplace was a source of major anxiety for people with diet restrictions, Lonny James created a vending machine business to help offices meet their employees’ diverse needs. That has evolved into a gifting service specializing in curating snack and wellness boxes for specialty diets, allergies and food tribes.
- Every Body Eat®: Founders Trish Thomas and Nichole Wilson personally understood the pain of finding delicious food they could share with the people they love, regardless of dietary restrictions or preferences. Their clean and crave-able snacks are free of the top 14 allergens, corn and sugar so every body can eat, together.
- GoNanas: As banana bread became increasingly popular during the pandemic, co-founders Morgan Lerner and Annie Slabotsky saw the opportunity to modernize the classic comfort food with a delicious banana bread mix that is allergen friendly – vegan, gluten free, and nut free.
- Moonshot: This climate-friendly snack brand is taking a bite out of climate change and founder Julia Collins is leading the way. She uses regeneratively grown, organic ingredients for her carbon neutral crackers to make an impact.
- Nunbelievable: This ‘cookie company with a cause’ matches every purchase with a donation to fight hunger. Founders Bryan Janeczko and Kuda Biza intend to end hunger in the most delicious way.
- Oat Haus: As founder Ali Bonar was recovering from an eating disorder, she made it her mission to retrain herself on how to have fun with food and created the world’s first oat-based spread to inspire others to do the same.
- Pan’s: When founder Michael Pan visited Malaysia and tried a mushroom jerky his vegetarian family had been making for decades, he saw it as an opportunity to bring that flavorful funghi experience to more people trying to reduce their meat consumption.
- Popcorn for the People: Founders Steven and Barbie Bier believed that something as simple as popcorn could be an opportunity to empower Autistic adults, like their son, to find pride in purposeful work. The non-profit employs more than 50 people with special needs to make its gourmet popcorn.
- Wonder Monday: Candace Wu and Jonathan Weinstein set out to create a low-carb, gluten-free cheesecake that tastes just like how you remember, but with the right nutrition to eat every day.
- Yolélé: Sharing food from West Africa is how founder chef Pierre Thiam achieves his social and environmental mission. He makes his craveable chips with fonio, an underutilized but highly sustainable grain from smallholder farms.
“We are thrilled to have another CoLab class that can benefit from our expertise and help us look at innovation from the ‘outside in’ to create a snacking world that is good for people, kind to the planet and deliciously fun,” said Brigette Wolf, Global Head of SnackFutures, Mondelez International. “Last year’s program was a huge success, and we can’t wait to see what this year holds with an amazing cohort of mission driven brands.”
The 2022 class officially kicks off in April 2022. For more information and the latest updates from the program, visit www.snackfutures.com.
About Mondelez International
Mondelez International, Inc. (Nasdaq: MDLZ) empowers people to snack right in over 150 countries around the world. With 2021net revenues of approximately $29 billion, MDLZ is leading the future of snacking with iconic global and local brands such as Oreo, belVita and LU biscuits; Cadbury DairyMilk, Milka and Toblerone chocolate; SourPatchKids candy and Trident gum. Mondelez International is a proud member of the Standard and Poor’s 500, Nasdaq 100 and Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Visit www.mondelezinternational.com or follow the company on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MDLZ.
About SnackFutures
SnackFutures is the Mondelez International innovation and venture hub, deliberately designed to push boundaries in snacking by capitalizing on consumer trends and emerging growth opportunities in well-being snacks around the world. The group’s priorities support incremental growth against three key strategic areas: invent new brands and businesses, invest in early stage entrepreneurs, and amplify the SnackFutures impact with the CoLab start-up engagement program. Learn more at www.snackfutures.com.
