Cleveland Kitchen, the maker of fresh-fermented foods such as kimchi and pickles, has closed a $19 million funding round led by Amberstone Ventures of San Francisco.
The Cleveland food tech company plans to use the investment to accelerate its growth and complete the acquisition of Sonoma Brinery, a Healdsburg, California-based pickle and sauerkraut maker, Cleveland Kitchen said in a statement.
The acquisition also is expected to help position Cleveland Kitchen as a vertically integrated leader in the fresh-fermented foods category, thanks to Sonoma Brinery's new facility in Santa Rosa, California, the company said.
All 50 employees from Sonoma Brinery will join the Cleveland Kitchen team, including Dave Ehreth the founder and president of Sonoma Brinery, the Cleveland company said.
"Sonoma Brinery's capabilities align perfectly with Cleveland Kitchen and help to increase speed to market, by adding West Coast manufacturing support and providing proprietary fermentation science information," said Drew Anderson, Cleveland Kitchen co-founder and CEO, said in his company's statement.
Ehreth will consult with the Cleveland Kitchen team to lend his background and nearly two-decades of knowledge in fermentation science. He spent 30 years in the telecommunications industry before starting Sonoma Brinery in 2004, according to his company's website.
Existing Cleveland Kitchen investor Clover Vitality, the Evanston, Illinois-based venture capital and private equity firm, also participated in the latest funding round. The company has raised $21 million since 2017, according to Crunchbase.
Cleveland Kitchen's revenue has grown 110% since 2016 by expanding its retail store base, same-store sales and new products, the company said.
The Cleveland company said expects its revenues to grow in 2022 through its investments in operational and manufacturing capabilities and a new product line expected this fall.
Drew Anderson founded what then was known as Cleveland Kraut in 2014 with his brother, Mac Anderson, and his brother-in-law, Luke Visnic, at Cleveland Culinary Launch & Kitchen, now known as Central Kitchen, the food company incubator on Cleveland's East Side.
