SnackFutures, the Chicago-based Mondelēz International Inc. innovation and venture hub, has announced the 10 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. The 2022 class officially kicks off in April 2022.
CoLab, which successfully completed its first class last year, leverages the full power of Mondelēz International’s leadership and expertise, along with SnackFutures’ ecosystem of partners.
The curriculum is curated to provide emerging brands with resources and information 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, Mondelēz International gains a closer pulse on trends and potential investments.
The mission-driven brands selected for Mondelēz’s CoLab Class of 2022 are:
- Bunny James Boxes: 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 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 everybody 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, thanks to founder Julia Collins. 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 a 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 an oat-based spread to inspire others to do the same.
- Pan’s: When founder Michael Pan visited Malaysia and tried the 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.
- 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, Mondelēz 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.”
For more information, visit mondelezinternational.com or snackfutures.com.
