FoodNerd has its target market, facility, seed funding and is ready to ramp up production as it prepares to launch a product line.
The Buffalo startup uses its processing technology to create food products that are both healthy and convenient. Sharon Rose Cryan originally launched years ago as a meal prep company but pivoted during the pandemic to shelf-stable snacks made from raw fruits and vegetables. Now, FoodNerd is focused on launching a product line for babies’ first bites through 3 to 4 years old.
Cryan, who became a mom in summer 2022, expects to launch that line in Q1 2024.
“It’s an incredible window and opportunity to set (kids) up for success and gives them foods you’d want them to eat as early as possible, so we decided to focus on the infant space,” she said. “It’s where the market is going. Parents deserve to know what they’re feeding their kids.”
FoodNerd about a month ago moved into a 8,000-square-foot commercial facility at 505 Duke Road, Cheektowaga. The startup has to do its own production because it created technology to process foods in a nutrient-dense way.
The business worked with a Boston engineering firm to create, design and manufacture its technology.
The startup, which employs six, expect to create about 20 jobs within the next year.
After recently closing a $1 million seed round, FoodNerd also has the funds to invest in its technology. The startup previously raised a roughly $950,000 pre-seed round in 2020 and plans to launch a Series A raise in Q4 2023 targeting about $6.5 million to scale up its production for its product launch next year.
One of the seed round’s key investors is Dr. Josh Axe, a health and wellness influencer with 2.23 million subscribers on his YouTube channel, among other social media outlets. He is now a strategic adviser as well as investor in FoodNerd.
That’s part of Cryan’s business strategy, to partner with industry experts as advisers as well as to do research and testing to show the transparency and value of FoodNerd’s products while also targeting to change industry standards overall.
“I believe if parents knew the impact that these ultra-processed foods had on their kids’ health and longevity that they would demand better, cleaner, safer options,” she said. “But it’s food manufacturers that don’t have to be transparent.”
The business is also building an ambassadors program, where they work with parents who care about kids eating healthy, including influencers and potentially celebrity partners, to promote FoodNerd’s brand.
Cryan wants to first focus on direct-to-consumer sales through FoodNerd’s website and Amazon to control the branding and messaging and create close relationships with customers. Then, about a year after the initial product line launch, she expects to start working with retailers, likely starting with local and regional shops and scaling up to national launches by 2025-26.
As part of its mission to help kids eat healthy, she also expects to launch late this year a give-back program where shoppers can donate FoodNerd products to families in need and the brand will have a matching program for those donations.
“We have a really strong mission,” Cryan said. “At the end of the day, that’s really what matters most – making sure the next generation has everything they need to be their best selves. … As a mom, nothing really motivates me more than that."
FoodNerd is the ninth local company to acknowledge a private, growth-oriented round of funding this year. The list includes Azuna ($3 million), Immunaeon ($600,000), Latte ($100,000), Aerovec ($178,000), CleanFiber ($6.7 million), HELIXintel ($11 million), Arbol ($350,000), CaHill Tech ($250,000) and FoodNerd ($1 million).
