Healthy and delicious food is important to Benjamin Pasternak, so when he saw a gap in the meat alternative industry, he went to work filling it.
Pasternak said his Richmond startup AuraPea, which produces a plant-based, high-protein product, stands out among competitors because of its clean ingredients. The startup’s website asks, “Who likes the thought of eating fake anything?”
“The majority of the products in the market have a lot of filler and products that aren’t really clean label,” he said. “We felt there was a space for us to take the technology we use and create a superior product for the alternative protein space.”
Pasternak, who launched AuraPea in early 2021, is also president and chief executive officer of Defiant Food Group, which offers culinary innovation systems.
AuraPea’s product is chickpea-based and available in a variety of "crumbles" including chorizo, breakfast, Italian and taco. Coming down the pipeline this year are new products like plant-based bacon and pepperoni.
The startup's unique flavors and quality ingredients quickly caught the eye of investors. AuraPea recently raised $1.5 million in new capital.
“We did one presentation with the food and raised the money within about two weeks,” he said.
Pasternak said investors saw an opportunity to “pilot and create a new frontier here in Richmond and also the Mid-Atlantic area.”
The AuraPea name demonstrates the product’s wholistic approach to a plant-based product line. “Aura” expresses the idea of the whole body, and “Pea” stands for the chickpea, which is the base material.
“Tasting delicious is important because it brings people back to the table on a daily basis,” Pasternak said. “That was really our goal to open up that space, something that is delicious and healthy.”
Pasternak said AuraPea’s “secret sauce” is in its patents. The startup’s patented process maintains the chickpea’s functionality after it’s milled.
“The functionality (protein) is really the basic binding principles that naturally exists in nature,” he said. “We basically reintroduce that functionality, not by adding a substance, which is where the fillers are coming from in our competitors’ products, but by taking it through another process in which we precisely keep the protein and bring it back to a point where it has its binding principals.”
With its recent funds, Pasternak said he is working on ways to extend the startup’s reach beyond the United States. AuraPea recently completed patents necessary to produce in Europe and is working on patents for Asia.
“We didn’t initially have plans to go to Europe in 2022, but now we’re planning on getting our production and manufacturing set up (there),” he said “We’ll be ready to go in 2023 in Europe with the products that we’ll have launched (this year) in the United States.”