Grubbly Farms, an Atlanta-based startup that develops fresh feed and snacks for chickens, has raised a little more than $2 million in a round led by Atlanta-based seed-stage VC firm Overline Ventures. Other investors in the round include Oval Park Capital and angel investors from previous rounds.
The funding will primarily be used for growing the Grubbly Farms team, building a more robust supply chain and increasing the startup's product line. The company will hire five full-time employees as a result of the funding, including a creative lead, email marketing manager and an operations and logistics manager.
"With grubs at the heart of what we do, it's our promise to provide products with premium nutrition, sustainable ingredients and full transparency," Sean Warner, co-founder and CEO of Grubbly Farms, told Atlanta Inno in an email. "Together, we can transform how we feed our chickens while helping our planet thrive."
Founded in 2016, Grubbly Farms was developed out of a Georgia Tech dorm room to bring nutrient-rich and environmentally-friendly chicken feed to the backyard chicken market. Nutrients in Grubbly Farms' feed can help chickens grow healthier feathers and lay eggs with stronger shells, Warner said.
"Grubblies and Grubbly Layer Feed are made with black soldier fly larvae (grubs), a sustainable protein source whose health and environmental benefits are well-established," Warner said.
The number of homes keeping backyard chickens has increased over the years and even accelerated during the Covid-19 crisis, Warner said. The American Pet Product Association estimates that as many as 10 million households in the U.S. keep poultry as pets.
"Backyard chicken keeping has evolved out of the modern homesteading movement," Warner said. "Adoption has grown in recent months as an increasing number of municipalities have passed regulations that allow chickens to be kept as pets in urban and suburban areas. There has also been an acceleration in the market resulting from Covid-19 lockdowns, as more Americans are staying home and are turning to new hobbies, including backyard chicken keeping."
When asked why Overline Ventures were the best partners to lead the round, Warner said the team loves that Overline is locally based and takes a hands-on approach to supporting its portfolio companies.
"Grubbly Farms is an ideal example of the type of business we built Overline to support," Sean O'Brien, managing partner of Overline, said in a statement. "We look for exceptional founding teams that provide their customers with a strong value proposition within a growing market segment --- attributes that are evidenced by Grubbly Farm's rabid fan-base and current business momentum. We were also drawn to the strong environmental benefits of the company's products, which reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avoid harmful farming practices that are involved in the production of many of their competitors' offerings."
The new funding brings Grubbly Farms total equity raised to $4.1 million. The startup employs five full-time employees and hopes to double their team by the end of the year, Warner said.
