A large portion of the nutrients that are found in fruits and vegetables are found in the skin. The skin is a rich source of antioxidants, fiber, minerals, and vitamins. Yet many of us prefer to consume fruits without the peels. RIND is a skin-on dried fruit snack brand that offers chewy snacks. The company currently offers six flavors, all made from California-grown organic fruit, that are vegan, non-GMO, kosher, and gluten-free. RIND can be found direct-to-consumer through its website as well as distributed online through Amazon, HungryRoot, FreshDirect, Good Eggs, Hive Brands, and Imperfect Foods and in-person at ~100 locations like select Whole Foods and Juice Press throughout the city. Through the pandemic, the company was able to grow revenue 5x and now plans to launch its first dried fruit snack chip.
AlleyWatch caught up with CEO and Cofounder Matt Weiss to learn more about the benefits of skin-on dried fruit snacks, the company’s strategic plans, recent round of funding, which brings the total funding raised to $8.4M, and much, much more.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
We are fortunate to have some amazing investors in this Series A funding round. The round was led by Valor Siren Ventures, an early-stage investor in sustainability, food, food technology, retail and retail technology, along with follow-on investment from Melitas Ventures, an NYC-based, early-stage investor in food and beverage that led RIND’s seed round in 2020.
RIND is thrilled to have raised $6.1M. This is a monumental moment in our business, and we couldn’t have asked for better partners who align with RIND in our vision for the brand and how we see the future of the grocery landscape.
Tell us about the product or service that RIND offers.
RIND is a ‘skin-on’ snack platform that makes whole-food, nutrient-dense, and zero waste snacks at the intersection of function and sustainability. By retaining the rind on ‘rescued’ and upcycled fruit, RIND’s snacks are packed with more fiber and vitamins and help fight unnecessary food waste by using the fruit, the whole fruit, and nothing but the fruit.
Our current core line of chewy fruit snacks features bold and tangy dried superfruit all powered by the peel. The core line is available in 6 varieties – Orchard Blend (persimmon, peach, apple), Tropical (organic pineapple, kiwi, orange), Coco-Melon (organic coconut, watermelon), Tangy Kiwi, Coconut Crisps, and Straw-Peary (strawberries, pears, apples) — our best seller.
We will also be launching RIND Chips next month, which like our core line, will retain the unique nutritional functionality of the peel. RIND Chips will come in three flavors: Apple, Kiwi, and Orange. This will be the first time that kiwis and oranges are transformed into a crispy chip and will be positioned as a line of ‘immunity’ chips with 200% and 300% daily value of Vitamin C per bag.
All of our products only use the whole fruit and are vegan, kosher, gluten-free, and Non-GMO Project Verified.
What inspired the start of RIND?
My Great-Grandmother Helen was ahead of her time. In the 1920s, she owned a natural food store that focused on whole foods and bulk grains, and she insisted on letting nothing go to waste. She had an amazing saying about embracing the ‘roots, rinds, seeds and stems’ in all her cooking and recipes.
Fast forward to 2017 when I went to a farmers’ market in California and tried a dried persimmon slice for the first time. It changed my life. The fruit looks like a tomato but is sweet like a cross between a mango and peach with the chewiness of a sweet potato. My epiphany with new fruits, like persimmon, as well as the inspirational stories I learned from my great-grandmother inspired me to look at the dried fruit category. I felt something was missing from this sleepy category. What should be the ultimate single-ingredient snack has been taken over by confectioners and candy-makers. Now, it is loaded with added sugars and sulfites. It’s a shame that naturally healthy fruit has been turned into an artificial item. I wanted to provide a healthy snack for my kids that I could feel good about giving them and any other families looking for a nutritious, clean, and environmentally friendly product.
As I continued my investment career, I started RIND as a side hustle in 2018. In 2020, the company continued to grow, and I knew that I needed to follow my passion and build RIND into the dynamic CPG business and brand platform I believe it can be.
How is RIND different?
RIND’s ethos is to “Keep It Real, Eat the Peel.” Our snacks are at the intersection of sustainability and function. We bring an immunity and nutritional benefit to dried fruit, and that comes uniquely from the fruit’s rind. By keeping the peel on our snacks, our fruit naturally retains more vitamins, antioxidants, and fiber than other dried fruit brands.
Keeping the peel intact goes beyond a nutritional aspect. Edible peels make up 15% of food waste annually, but they are home to some of the healthiest micronutrients on the planet! By keeping the RIND on, we’ve helped divert over 120,000 pounds of edible peels from entering landfills in 2020.
RIND wants to help future generations of health-conscious consumers snack better and do better without compromise.
What market does RIND target and how big is it?
RIND is much more than a fruit snack. We see the brand eventually growing to use other skin-on ingredients, from fruits to vegetables to legumes and even nuts. Right now, our core chewy line is in the dried fruit section, which is a $2B dollar US market and $4B global market. When we launch RIND Chips next month, the brand will be entering the Chip category. The US Chips market is $20B – 10 times the size of the dried fruit category.
RIND will be pioneering a new category of what a fruit snack can be, and we expect the chips to blaze new category growth as a crossover snack. The chips will be merchandised in the functional snacks space to start but ultimately, we see a path to the coveted salty snacks aisle. We also believe our products and brand enjoy tremendous versatility and have had success in specialty sets, wine & gourmet cheese, and even cocktail mixers. We see RIND Chips as a manifestation of what the RIND platform can be. RIND is built with the intent to be a skin-on snack platform.
What’s your business model?
As a relatively young brand, we had the flexibility and agility to not just survive but thrive during COVID as we saw consumer shopping habits change in real-time. Before the pandemic, we followed an omnichannel approach and plan to continue this. We are leaning into amazing, new emerging channels of grocery and have discovered the power of alt-distribution.
We are meeting our shopper where she shops. Due to COVID, platforms like HungryRoot, FreshDirect, Good Eggs, Hive Brands, and Imperfect Foods have seen immense subscriber growth and helped position our brand squarely in front of customers during peak quarantine.
How has COVID-19 impacted the business??
RIND grew strongly through the pandemic as our total business grew 5-fold in 2020. For context, during the three months during peak COVID (March-May), we generated more revenue than all of 2018 and 2019 combined. This explosive revenue growth was driven by D2C, Amazon, and our strategic partnerships with amazing new emerging grocery platforms, like HungryRoot. Having a strong digital presence allowed people to order RIND from the comfort of their homes.
People also began to focus on immunity products. While they were buying sanitizer and wipes to clean the surfaces around them, people also wanted to look for products that would help their bodies be healthier and stronger. RIND’s core line already offers 2-3 times the fiber and vitamins than other dried fruits because the peel is kept on. The upcoming Chip launch takes this a step further and is effectively a single-ingredient immunity chip. RIND Chips will be available in Orange, Apple, and Kiwi. The bag of Orange Chips will have 300% of the daily value of Vitamin C, and the Kiwi Chips will contain 200% of the daily value of Vitamin C. This will create a cross-over category, and RIND Chips will deliver the crave-able crunch of a classic salty chip with the benefits of fruit.
What was the funding process like?
RIND was fortunate in that both my cofounder and I come from backgrounds in finance. As a result, navigating the process, identifying the right partners, and negotiating terms were less daunting because it was less foreign to us, albeit on the other side of the table this time.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
Focus, speed to close, and avoiding distraction are some of the major challenges we faced. The immense time and resources that fundraising requires from a lean team cannot be understated. At the end of the day, the most important priority is the focus and discipline that a young business is going to require 24/7.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
Passion, proof of concept, and platform potential. The proof of concept we had from already being in the market for a few years combined with the platform potential of the brand helped steer us to investment partners that shared our long-term vision for a brand we look to build and scale and not flip.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
We aspire to at least triple revenues for the next several years while launching an array of disruptive new clean-snacking SKUs and launching into several top tier retail accounts.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
For a snack startup, New York City is one of the most exciting and dynamic places to launch a food business. The diversity and wealth of specialty stores from which to draw inspiration — from Zabar’s to Fairway to Russ & Daughters to Kalustyan’s — can’t be found anywhere but The Big Apple!
For a snack startup, New York City is one of the most exciting and dynamic places to launch a food business. The diversity and wealth of specialty stores from which to draw inspiration — from Zabar’s to Fairway to Russ & Daughters to Kalustyan’s — can’t be found anywhere but The Big Apple!
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
RIND will continue to develop an exciting line of nutrient-dense and sustainable snacks that consumers crave. Next month, we’ll be launching our first line extension — RIND Chips – thin-cut, crispy fruit slices with the rind-on, of course. We believe this crispy line provides our brand entry to a significant new category of growth beyond dried fruit.
With VSV’s support, RIND will expand our product lines and explore new categories. The capital will also be used to build out a world-class team, invest in marketing and innovation and expand capacity.
We also plan to build on our successful philanthropic programs. In 2020, we launched Love is RIND, a campaign to address nutritious insecurity and childhood hunger. Through Love is RIND, we donate our nutritious snacks to children on the weekends, a time when access to food outside of school is limited. Last year, we donated 5,000 bags and expect to donate around 25,000 bags this year as we continue to grow.
In terms of distribution, RIND has forged its path with key account retail as well as alternative D2C distribution. We have some large new partners we’ll be onboarding later this year, including CVS and we will continue to pursue a robust omnichannel approach.
What’s your favorite outdoor dining restaurant in NYC:
My family and I have really been loving the Domino Park area of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The waterfront park and art installations are uniquely New York and two of my all-time favorite culinary spots in the city are side by side: Roberta’s Pizza and Other Half Brewery.
