QOA brings in seed round to do for chocolate what Oatly did for milk
It is also now backed by $6 million in seed funding in an investment round led by Cherry Ventures with participation by Fifty Years, World Fund, Nucleus Capital, Trellis Road, Pioneer Fund and Tet Ventures.
The company kicked off this year, founded by the sister-and-brother team of Drs. Sara and Maximilian Marquart. Sara Marquart is a food chemist with a specialty in flavor formation, while Max Marquart is a material scientist and now three-time entrepreneur.
The global chocolate confectionery industry was valued at over $208 billion in 2020, and is the largest part of the industry in the U.S. Two-thirds of the world’s cocoa supply comes from West Africa, but is at risk — one of the reasons the Marquarts decided to focus on it. Currently, up to 50% of the current cocoa supply is at risk due to pathogens and climate change, and cocoa is playing a role in both deforestation and forced child labor.
“Our food supply is threatened due to the way we eat,” Max Marquart told TechCrunch. “We love chocolate, however, we realized that there are some sustainability risks and wanted to do something about it so we can still have it in the future.”
