A Tiburon company has raised some fresh capital for its line of Mexican food-inspired goods which include hot sauce and tortillas made from cactus fronds.
Tía Lupita Hot Sauce announced on Thursday that it raised $2.6 million from investors in Mexico. The round was led by Santatera Capital and GBM Ventures.
The new capital brings Tía Lupita's total funding to around $4.5 million, which includes around $86,000 from a WeFunder campaign.
"With this large capital infusion, we plan to grow our team, accelerate new product development, and expand into new markets," CEO Hector Saldivar said in a statement.
Saldívar launched Tía Lupita in 2018 with the hot sauces and subsequently added more products to the brand, also known as Tía Lupita Foods, including tortillas, chips and a chili oil known as salsa macha.
The tortillas and chips contain flour that's made from dried cactus fronds called nopal, which makes the products lower in carbs and more environmentally sustainable.
Nopal "grows in the desert. It needs little to no water to grow, no maintenance. It reaches maturity every six months. We can crop and harvest twice a year. It was a no-brainer," Saldívar told me earlier this year.
Saldívar also appeared in a episode of Shark Tank that aired in April, and at the time, Kevin O'Leary agreed to give Saldívar a $500,000 line of credit at 12.5% interest in exchange for a non-dilutable 5% stake in Tía Lupita.
He named the company after his mother, whose hot sauce recipes were the original inspiration for the company's first products.
"Tía Lupita is my mom. In Monterrey, it's a term of endearment. We don't usually refer to the parents of our friends like misses, ma'am, sir, mister. We call them tío, tía, aunt, uncle," Saldívar previously told me. "Tía Lupita is my mom, and she's your tía. It's my way of welcoming you to the family."
