A Baltimore food company has signed a national contract with Whole Foods and raised a bridge round of venture capital as it starts building a bigger profile.
SIMPLi’s variety of sustainably grown beans, quinoa and amaranth, launched at all 530 Whole Foods across the country in April, marking a huge growth step for the 30-person company. SIMPLi works directly with farmers in Latin America and Europe to sell their products to the American market. The company announced the closure of its Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) on May 25 but declined to disclose the dollar amount of that round or of its 2021 seed round. The SAFE included participation from the Baltimore-based Abell Foundation, the University of Maryland Momentum Fund and Honest Tea co-founder Seth Goldman.
The round will be a bridge as the company works toward a larger venture funding round, Chief Finance Officer Matthew Cohen said. The round will boost SIMPLi’s marketing team and grow the company’s distribution network. The company already works with several notable restaurant chains, such as &Pizza, Sweetgreen, and Chopt, and also sells other products, like olive oil, in some Whole Foods stores in the Mid-Atlantic region.
The Harbor East company, which was founded in 2020, focuses on regenerative farming, a practice that improves the sustainability of the soil. Regenerative farming uses practices like crop rotation, such as swapping out beans for amaranth once the growing season for the legume is up, to preserve the nutrient content of the soil. The company’s products are regenerative organic certified, certified USDA organic and fair trade, with many of SIMPLi's farmers being indigenous or living in very rural communities.
"Regardless of where producers are in the world, we can have a special experience because we will sit at a table or on the ground and have a meal together. We don't have to say a single word with one another. But we can both enjoy that experience together through food," Cohen said.
Simpli is also offering some more consumer products outside of pantry goods through partnerships with chefs. SIMPLi is working with CENTRAL, a Peruvian restaurant considered one of the best in the world, to create a chocolate line.
“We're growing our platform, so you can get products that are hard to come by outside of the country of origin,” Cohen said. “If you're down in Peru, and you had an amazing meal at one of your favorite restaurants and they sold a chocolate, you can access that chocolate at home.”
Baltimore is home to several other food companies that appeal to the taste buds of home cooks. One of the country’s largest spice companies, McCormick & Co. Inc., is based in Hunt Valley and a $2 billion Philadelphia startup Misfits Market recently moved its headquarters to Hanover.
Both traditional ingredient companies and meal kit companies like Hello Fresh flourished during the pandemic as people were forced to stay home and cook, but have since struggled to retain customers as people start going back to restaurants and supply chain disruptions continue to hurt the food industry.
SIMPLi, however, has been relatively resilient during the post-Covid decline in the food business. The company sells to both home cooks and restaurants, which protects it from any declines in the home cooking market as people return to restaurants. The company’s fair trade practices also give it an edge since it can attract customers who value the sustainability of food, Cohen said.
